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The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil

John McGrath author Dr Graeme Macdonald editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:26th Feb '15

Should be back in stock very soon

The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil cover

A Student Edition of one of the most defining plays of the twentieth century, which tells the history of the Scottish underclass and, in its style and mission, reconceived Scottish theatre.

Written during the 1970s, John McGrath’s winding, furious, innovative play tracks the economic history and exploitation of the Scottish Highlands from the post-Rebellion suppression of the clans to the story of the Clearances: in the nineteenth century, aristocratic landowners discovered the profitability of sheep farming, and forced a mass emigration of rural Highlanders, burning their houses in order to make way for the Cheviot sheep. The play follows the thread of capitalist and repressive exploitation through the estates of the stag-hunting landed gentry, to the 1970s rush for profit in the name of North Sea Oil. Described by the playwright as having a “ceilidh” format, The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil draws on historical research alongside Gaelic song and the Scots’ love of variety and popular entertainment to tell this epic story. A totally distinctive cultural and theatrical phenomenon, the play championed several new approaches to theatre, raising its profile as a means of political intervention; proposing a collective, democratic, collaborative approach to creating theatre; offering a language of performance accessible to working-class people; producing theatre in non-purpose-built theatre spaces; breaking down the barrier between audience and performers through interaction; and taking theatre to people who otherwise would not access it. The play received its premiere in 1973 by the agit-prop theatre group 7:84, of which John McGrath was founder and Artistic Director, and toured Scotland to great critical and audience acclaim.

[McGrath] was Britain’s Brecht, Scotland’s Dario Fo . . . A creative powerhouse who was often out of fashion, but never out of action . . . Today, few speak, far less make theatre, with such ideological intent. * Guardian *
The late John McGrath's hugely important fusion of Highland ceilidh and old-fashioned Scots musical theatre . . . still remains alive and contemporary. As play it has everything, and it throws it at you in generous handfuls; laughter, farce, drama, live song and dance, finely researched political intent. . . . as a love song to a beautiful, damaged culture and a warning of the dangers of unchecked capitalism it still rings astonishingly true. * Independent *
arguably the single most important show in the whole history of Scottish theatre: important not only because of its angry, hilarious, brilliantly-researched political content, still almost frighteningly relevant today, but because its ceilidh form, and its passionate commitment to touring to communities large and small, galvanised an irreversible change in what Scotland thought theatre was, what it could do, and who its audience might be. . . . John McGrath's great play will reach out to a new generation, and continue to evolve, develop, and live, along with the story of Scotland itself. * Scotsman *

ISBN: 9781472531094

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 202g

216 pages