Coffee-Table Notes

When Brett Bailey's Third World Bunfight company presented Exhibit B as part of the 2014 Edinburgh International Festival, the show's twenty-first century reimagining of colonial era human zoos, when black Africans were shown in front of their white thrill-seeking masters as novelty artefacts to gaze on, garnered a slew of five-star reviews. As someone who gave Exhibit B a five star review in this magazine, I was aware before I saw the show's series of tableau vivant of the accusations of racism that had been levelled against Bailey, a white South African artist. These accusations came from protesters in various countries where Exhibit B had been seen, as well as in Britain, where it was set to transfer from Edinburgh to the Barbican's Vaults space in London this week. Today's announcement by the Barbican that their week-long showing of Exhibit B has been cancelled following protests on the first night that saw the road outside the venue blocked comes following an o...

That there is no main-stage swan-song directed by National Theatre of  Scotland artistic director Vicky Featherstone in her final season before departing to run the Royal Court speaks volumes about her tenure over the last six years. Because it isn't any single production which has defined Featherstone's role. Rather, it is an all-embracing vision which has enabled artists to be bold and to think big while Featherstone has taken on a more diplomatic role protective of her charges. Indeed, it could be argued that Featherstone's own creative work has been neglected because of this. Of the season itself, if there is an element of baton-passing, with associate director Graham McLaren being particularly prolific, there is also a sense that theatre in Scotland has become increasingly exploratory. If the NTS has the resources to raise the bar, then the talent is already there to take advantage of it. It is an attitude the ongoing national embarrassment that is Creat...

When David MacLennan founded A Play, A Pie and A Pint at Oran Mor in 2004, his first season of lunchtime plays with refreshments included in the ticket price was a modest affair. Eight years on, and having presented some 250 new works, as MacLennan gets set to receive the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland's inaugural CATS Whiskers award for Outstanding Achievement, A Play, A Pie and A Pint now looks like a genuine theatrical phenomenon that was seriously ahead of the game. With initial seasons seemingly pulled together with the help of MacLennan's extensive address book of Scottish theatre movers and shakers, it was as if those seemingly left in the theatrical wilderness after grants for companies such as the MacLennan-led Wildcat company had been cut had suddenly rediscovered their mojo. With no tradition of lunchtime theatre in Scotland, A Play, A Pie and A Pint served up works from veteran writers such as Peter MacDougall that were more serious than the...

“If you believe a story’s worth telling, you’ll believe in it to the death.” So said Cora Bissett, director of Roadkill, an astonishing look at sex trafficking close to home and winner of the year’s Best production award at yesterday’s Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland. If ever there was a sentiment that summed up the creative whirlwind of just how much theatre in Scotland is punching well above its weight, Bissett captures it perfectly. This is especially the case in the current economic climate, with cuts in arts funding as inevitable this side of the border as they were recently in England. Bissett accidentally captured the gung ho, never say die approach that makes artists create work in the face of adversity, and the CATS awards rightly celebrates this. Apart from anything else, it also shows off the full diverse range of the work made in Scotland that is a world apart from the London awards scene centred mainly around commercial west end shows. As well as Ro...

The National Theatre Of Scotland’s production of Black Watch has already proved itself to be the most thrillingly incendiary theatrical experience of the last year, either in this country or anywhere else. It’s co-opting yesterday by the Scottish Executive to usher in the new session of parliament, however, sends out mixed messages. On the one hand, here is the opportunity for a genuine artistic phenomenon to be endowed with the weight of historical significance. Blackwatch’s just announced British Council supported dates in New York and Los Angeles should prove that. On the other, what could be perceived as a hi-jack by posterity-seeking politicians basking in the reflected glory of something they had no hand in, only confirms what some have always believed. That any artistic institution funded directly from the Scottish Executive coffers, as the NTS is, will eventually have to dance to its master’s tune. For anyone arguing for artistic autonomy free of political interference, y...

If the notion of five year plans sounds like an archaic concept, by calling their 2011 programme Staging The Nation, the final season of the National Theatre of Scotland’s first half decade can’t help but appear similarly grandiose. If you read between the lines, however, it’s clear that the NTS are pursuing a far more holistic and progressive party line than the high-profile flagship works suggest. So for every Dunsinane, there are more maverick initiatives such as Five Minute Theatre and Favourite Scottish Plays, while the Bank of Scotland enabled Graduate Director and Emerging Artists schemes keep an eye on the future rather than looking backwards. If there are too many buzzwords of the Diaspora, Extreme and Reveal variety, the series of workshops, rehearsed readings and works-in-progress contained within these strands offers a back to basics approach that goes beyond the more obvious spotlights. Of the big guns themselves, a home-grown revival of David Harrower’s debut play, Knives...