When David Greig began
writing Victoria in 1996, the world was a very different place to how
it looks today. Yet if all goes well, Greig's epic tale of three
generations of a Highland community might just have matured into
something even more significant. Originally produced by the Royal
Shakespeare Company in 2000, and now receiving its Scottish premiere
at Dundee Rep, Victoria takes place over three time zones, 1936, 1976
and 1996. A large ensemble of actors play some thirty-two characters,
at the centre of which are three very different women, all called
Victoria.
“It's very strange
going back to the play after all this time,” says Greig, “but
it's also very interesting. There's an extent to it being like
meeting one's younger self, and on one level that writer was very
gauche, and very different to the writer I am now, but it's also
fascinating to see the level of ambition that writer had then. I
didn't realise, but there are lines in Victoria that reappear in
[Greig's recent Edinburgh Festival Fringe play] The Events, so it's
interesting to see some of the themes that run through my work. So
while it's not without its awkwardness, Victoria is a play I think
still stands up.”
Originally conceived as
a trilogy of three separate plays that even the RSC's resources
couldn't cope with, the inspirations for Victoria were many.
“I was very
interested in the Spanish Civil war,” Greig remembers, “and at
the time the war was going on in Bosnia. In essence it was in defence
of the idea of multi-culturalism and Europe living together, and it
seemed all these ideas were going to the dogs. The phrase 'ethnic
cleansing' came out of the war in Bosnia, which we'd never heard
before, and Europe was a very fragile place.
“So I was looking
around, and I thought of all these young men going out to take part
in the Spanish Civil war and fight for something they believed in. It
was their choice to go out there, and I suppose I asked myself why
this didn't happen now. To put it crudely, why wasn't there an
International Brigade going out to defend Bosnian Muslims, and what
was it about the 1930s that made cause and possibility so inspiring?
“At that time in 1996
as well, it felt very much like cause and belief had gone. One of the
interesting things is that the play has developed an invisible fourth
act, following the three acts set in 1936, 1976 and 1996. When it was
first staged, 1996 was essentially the present day. Now fifteen years
or so on, we've had thirteen years of a Labour government, we've had
devolution, we've had Iraq, we've had devolution and we've had the
coalition. The whole world has changed so much, so now, when we see
Victoria at the end of the play, we now know what's going to happen
to her.”
One of the major
devices in the play is having the cast play different characters in
each act, with all three Victorias played by the same actress.
“Theatrically
speaking, I was interested in the effect of that,” Greig says.
“It's like music, in that you can play the same chord, but it will
have different resonances depending on what else is around it. With
the Victorias, I wanted that feeling of young female energy, and each
of them kind of becomes the spirit of their age.”
At the time Victoria
was commissioned, Greig was one of the rising stars of his
generation, with his first full-length professional plays, Europe in
1994 and The Architect ion 1996, being produced by The Traverse
Theatre. The artistic director of Scotland's new writing theatre at
the time was Philip Howard, who directed both plays. With Howard
having recently been appointed artistic director of Dundee Rep, his
new production of Victoria not only marks his directorial debut at
his new artistic home. It also reunites him with Greig for the first
time since the Traverse days, when Howard also directed Greig's
plays, Outlying Islands, The Speculator and Damascus.
“I've always wanted
Victoria to be seen in Scotland,” says Greig, “but I wanted to
hold out for a really special production, and when Philip approached
me, because I've collaborated with him so often, it felt right. I
think he's done a lovely job from what I've seen so far, and I think
he really understands my writing. The play was pretty sprawling, and
he's had to do some pretty major pruning to make it a manageable
evening in Dundee. That dramaturgical sensitivity us I think one of
Philip's major strengths.”
2013 has been quite a
year for Greig. His stage version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory has become a West End hit, while his Edinburgh
Festival Fringe play, The Events, was
similarly acclaimed.
Opening hot on the heels of Victoria is the National Theatre of
Scotland's revival of Dunsinane, Greig's sequel of sorts to
Shakespeare's Macbeth.
This summer also saw
the publication of The Suspect Culture Book, an archive of Suspect
Culture, the theatre company Greig formed with director Graham
Eatough while they were both at Bristol University. As well as a
series of essays about the company, the book also contains Greig's
scripts for three of the company's most important works; Timeless,
Mainstream and Lament.
While Greig remains as
prolific as ever, he might just be about to disappear from public
view for a while.
“I have a pile of
writing to do,” he says, “so there won't be a new play by me
onstage for at least another year now. With everything that's
happened this year, I kind of feel there's not exactly a shortage of
plays by me out there just now.”
Victoria, Dundee Rep,
September 4th-21st.
David Greig – A Life
in Words
David Greig was born in
Edinburgh in 1969, and grew up in Nigeria.
On returning to
Edinburgh in his teens, he studied English and drama at Bristol
University.
In 1990 while still a
student, Greig co-founded Suspect Culture with director Graham
Eatough and composer Nick Powell.
Greig's first
professionally staged play, Stalinland, is produced at the Edinburgh
Festival Fringe in 1992, then at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, in
1993.
Greig's first Traverse
commission, Europe, appears in 1994, beginning a long association
with Scotland's new writing theatre. Europe's themes of displacement
and attempts by people to connect during fractured times re-occur in
many of Greig's later plays.
Branching out beyond
the Traverse, Greig wrote Victoria for the Royal Shakespeare Company,
The Cosmonaut's Last Message for Paines Plough and Caledonia Dreaming
for 7:84 Scotland.
Greig's work has
appeared twice at Edinburgh International Festival; in 1999 with
imagined history play, The Speculator, and in 2003 with contemporary
fantasia, San Diego.
More recently Greig has
scored hits with lo-fi musical, Midsummer, and with pub theatre
ballad, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, both of which have
toured the world.
Greig's version of
Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is currently running
in the West End, his Edinburgh Festival Fringe play, The Events, is
on tour and his sequel to Shakespeare's Macbeth, Dunsinane, is about
to tour for the second time.
In 2014, Greig will
collaborate with writer director David MacLennan on The Great Don't
Know Show, a major commission by the National Theatre of Scotland,
which will look at the forthcoming referendum on Scottish
independence through a piece of popular political music hall.
The Herald,
September 3rd 2013
ends
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