Mackenney, Linda

About the author: Linda Mackenney was educated at New Hall, Cambridge University. She carried out the research for the 7:84 theatre Company’s Clydebuilt Season of Scottish Popular Plays and created the Scottish Theatre Archive at Glasgow University Library. She now teaches at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh.

Activities of Popular Dramatists and Drama Groups in Scotland, 1900-1952

2000 0-7734-7905-8
Provides valuable primary research on the activities of popular dramatists and drama groups in Scotland who played an important role in the late blossoming of a Scottish National Drama. Includes Joe Corrie’s Fife Miner Players, Glasgow Unity Theatre, and Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop. These companies produced a wide range of original works on contemporary issues (the General Strike of 1926, unemployment in the Hungry 30s, Glasgow’s post-war housing shortage) as well as religious, racial, and gender issues. They adopted a variety of styles, from agit-prop to social realism., and made creative use of popular forms of entertainment, from the Burns Supper to the village concert. It provides an interesting comparison with the work of other international popular drama movements.