Caroline Paterson reckons she was about seventeen years old when she and fellow students were allowed in to watch rehearsals of Cuttin' a Rug, the second part of John Byrne's Slab Boys trilogy of plays. That was at the Traverse Theatre's old Grassmarket space, which premiered all three of Byrne's plays in productions directed by David Hayman. A few years later, and by now a professional actress of note, Paterson appeared in Byrne's 1950s set play in Edinburgh and Dundee, playing the object of the play's male double act's affections, Lucille Bentley, in a cast that also included Robert Carlyle and Alan Cumming. More than thirty years on from her first encounter with Byrne's play, Paterson herself is directing Cuttin' a Rug in a brand new production at the Gorbals-based Citizens Theatre, where Hayman directed a revival of The Slab Boys in 2015. Cuttin' a Rug is set a few hours after the first play, which focuses on the thwarted ambitions of Span
An archive of arts writing by Neil Cooper. Effete No Obstacle.