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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2009
7:84 (Scotland) Theatre Company was launched in 1973 through an epoch-making tour of The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black, Black Oil, pioneering small-scale touring theatre in Scotland. The arrival of the company coincided with a more general resurgence in indigenous theatre and its success heralded the rise of touring companies as an integral part of the theatrical scene. During the 1970s, its reputation was established as a campaigning left-wing company which combined music and documentary in shows touring to popular audiences throughout Scotland. Although 7:84 had been a revenue-funded client of the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) since 1976, in January 1988 SAC announced that it was to withdraw the company from the list of revenue-funded clients from April 1989. On 22 July 1988 John McGrath, writer, director and co-founder of the company resigned as Artistic Director, levelling allegations of political interference at SAC because of this proposal. The company was taken over by David Hayman, Gerard Kelly, and Jo Beddoe. By the beginning of 1992, Jo Beddoe had left the company and the intention of Kelly and Hayman to resign had been made public.
1. The company's then administrative chaos is illustrated by the fact that this deficit was finally found to be only £18,000.
2. Interview between Jo Beddoe and the author, 25/4/90.
3. McGrath expressed serious concern about Hayman's suitability for the post on hearing of his proposed artistic policy and after the production of No Mean City which Hayman directed for the company. In June 1991, he submitted a detailed criticism of the company's work under Hayman to the Board of Directors, on which he continues to serve.
4. From a programme note for 7:84 Scotland, 's Out of Our Heads (1976).Google Scholar
5. McGrath, John's ‘The Theory and Practice of Political Theatre’, Theatre Quarterly, Vol 9, No. 35, p. 43.Google Scholar
6. Interview between Jo Beddoe, and the author, 25/4/90, p11.Google Scholar
7. Interview between Bill Speirs and the author, 2/5/91, pp 6–7.
8. Charges that the company had gone ‘politically soft’ by doing this show do not hold when one considers that a quarter of all the work done between 1983–8 involved reruns of previous company productions; four of which were adaptations of novels. Since The Albannach (Spring 1985)Google Scholar the company had moved away from directly polemical shows and towards the reproduction of subjects from the pantheons of Scots and working class culture. Moreover, few of the productions staged in the last three years of McGrath's artistic directorship could be said to be addressing contemporary Scotland. At the same time, Hayman and Kelly's records of productions with 7:84 had been in doing popular ‘classics’ for the Mayfest audience. The Sash fitted snugly into this repertoire: a reproduction of part of Scotland's cultural heritage, with entertainment values taking precedence over analysis.
9. From the General Manager's report to the Finance Committee on 19/6/89.
