Scottish theatre and drama in the age of devolution.

摘要

In "Scottish Theatre and Drama in the Age of Devolution," I interrogate Scottish theatrical and dramatic works from the mid-1990s to the present, examining the intersection between theatre and politics during this time period. The title references as a starting point the success of the 1997 Devolution Referendum, and an ending point of September 2014, when a referendum on full Scottish Independence will be put to a vote.;I first provide a survey of the major plays and productions during this period. Though many of these works are not necessarily written with an overtly political agenda in mind, I perceive a through-line of political inquiry in each work. I analyze these works through the lens of Postcolonialism, a theoretical tool that provides the most fruitful analysis of the plays' political implications. I first consider the language of the devolutionary stage, then move to notions of hybridity and liminality, and finally I examine history and canonicity.;Next, I consider plays that have been written in direct response to political developments in Scotland. I first address works written in response to the devolutionary moment; I then move to works written in anticipation of the upcoming Independence Referendum. I see these plays as continuing the tradition of overtly political Scottish theatre that began with the work of 7:84 (Scotland) in the 1970s, and each interrogates the possibilities and implications of an autonomous Scotland.;Finally, I focus on institution-level developments in Scottish theatre that have arisen since devolution, the most prominent of which is the 2003 foundation of the National Theatre of Scotland. After examining the work of the NTS, I turn to other institutional developments: the founding and work of Glasgow's populist lunchtime theatre series, A Play, a Pie and a Pint; the work of new-writing theatre, the Traverse, during this time period; and the changing issues of arts funding.