Theatre History Overview - Part 26 - Scottish Theatre

Scottish theatre goes back to the medieval period. Like many places, they had liturgicla dramas and mystery plays. Many festivals were accompanied by performances of at least one of these plays. One example is ludi de ly haliblude which was staged at Aberdeen in 1440 and 1445.

During the reformation in the 16th century, the church did not like theatre that was not for a religious or moral purpose. Even plays that were not Catholic or were anti-Catholic in any way were not accepted. Around 1540, James Wedderburn has written anti-Catholic tragedies including Beheading of Johne the Baptiste and Dyonisius the Tyraone. because of this, he was forced to flee into exile. The same year saw David Lyndays write The Thrie Estaitis which is the only play to survive from before the reformation in Scotland.

In 1599, James VI arranged for a playhouse to be erected and to have a company of English actors perform. Very little evidence of theatre in 1600s Scotland edists. However, there is doucmentation of Marcian or the Discovery by William Clerke in 1663. There are also records of plays by Thomas Sydsurf frome the second half of the 1600s.

In the 1700s, the church of Scotland was still mostly against theatre. Most Scottish playwrights would work in London. When there were performances in Scotland, most were by visiting actors. These actors would still face hostility from the church. In an attempt to censor and control what was being written about the British government through theatre, the Licensing Act of 1737 was passed. This made acting in Scotland illegal and theatre closed down.

In the late 18th century, Scotland saw a revival of theatre. This started with closet dramas, which were plays that were not intended to be performed on the stage, but to be read out loud in small groups of by a solitary reader. A few of the writers of closet dramas were James Hogg, John Galt, and Joanna Baillie.

By the 19th century, theatre was considered to be at its height. In the early 19th century, there were many theatrical adaptations of historic material. A few Scottish plays from the 19th century are adaptations of Sir Walter Scott's Waverly novels, The Heart of Midlothian, The Bride of Lammermoor, and Rob Roy.

In the 20th century, J.M. Barrie was probably the most prominent Scottish playwright of the 20th century. Before Peter Pan was novelized in 1906, he had written it as a play in 1904. The Theatre Act of 1968 was passed and it abolished the Lisencing Act of 1737.

The 1970s started a golden age for Scottish theatre. Theatre in Scotland still goes strong today. There are even well known theatre festivals, with the two most well known ones being the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

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