The Studio, Edinburgh Four stars History is a fickle beast, and the states-people who stride through it can be lionised one minute, reviled the next. Such complexities and contradictions are thrown into the air for serious contemplation in Robert Dawson Scott’s fascinating dramatic study of one-time Scottish socialist firebrand Tom Johnston, who drove the creation of hydro-electric power stations in the Highlands. While it is taken for granted that this changed the social landscape for the better, some of the collateral damage left in its wake begs to differ. Dawson Scott calls Johnston to account through the figure of Sandy MacKenzie, an idealistic young journalist, who as a young student lends his political idol a copy of Johnston’s own book, Our Scots Noble Families, but never receives the return he once expected. Such is the way of real-politick in Dawson Scott’s script for Alasdair McCrone’s Mull Theatre production, currently on a suitably energised. cross-country t
An archive of arts writing by Neil Cooper. Effete No Obstacle.