Key Contexts

This chapter examines the developing vocabulary of Scottish theatre in the 1980s and 90s, a period during which the social, cultural and political landscape was dominated by Thatcherism and increased demands for a new constitutional settlement for the UK. Covering important developments at the Glasgow Citizens’ and the Traverse in Edinburgh, it shows how the orthodoxy of Scottish drama of the 70s was challenged by directors, designers and playwrights looking out towards other dramaturgical forms and theatre cultures. The reinvention of political Europe in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, is understood as feeding into an ongoing examination of political and cultural Scotland, by emerging playwrights including David Greig and David Harrower.