While audiences and critics might still be debating the merits of The Abbey's ambitious production of Barbaric Comedies (see report, Page 3), the theatre's centre-stage billing in this year's Edinburgh Festival must be a stark reminder to supporters of a national theatre for Scotland that they still don't have one. However, the Scottish Parliament's cultural strategy, launched yesterday at the Edinburgh Book Festival, supports the idea. The Federation of Scottish Theatre had already been asked to submit a proposal for a national theatre to the parliament's cultural committee; its Director, Heather Baird, is a strong supporter of the concept.
"We feel that if there's a national opera and a national ballet and national orchestras . . . Theatre is a much more indigenous art form in Scotland and it should have that status."
Heather Baird insists that the kind of National Theatre of Scotland her organisation envisages is thoroughly modern, however: "It is not a building. It's an organisation like the Edinburgh International Festival, a flexible beast that can commission work from Scottish companies or from international companies, or can pick up work in Scotland that is already good - which might be a show for children, or something from the Highlands, or a big production, and promote this as being the best that Scottish theatre can offer."
The current estimate of the cost of setting it up is only £4 million sterling, but Heather Baird is still working hard to convince the Scottish public, some sections of which have been complaining long and hard about the money going to Scottish Opera, that it is worth it: "It will help us export work abroad. It will create jobs." She is not even looking to the Scottish Exchequer for all the money, but is instead looking for suggestions from the Parliament as to how it can be raised.
She is coming to Dublin shortly to discuss the proposal with Ben Barnes of the Abbey: "The Abbey", she says, "is a fantastic organisation. It reflects Irish culture, new Irish culture, and it manages to do the international thing, which we don't." That's all increasingly true, but those in the theatre world who are jealous of the Abbey's recent capital funding windfall for a new building will be hoping Ben Barnes will take notes from Heather Baird at the meeting.
The Catalan craze at the Edinburgh International Festival, of which the Catalan director, Calixto Bieito's co-production with the Abbey is only the latest phase, seems to have gripped Northern Ireland too. The official programmes at the Edinburgh Festival carry an advertisement for the Belfast Festival at Queen's which includes a season of Spanish and Catalan culture called "Festa/Fiesta". Rosie Turner, Acting Director, who programmed this year's festival (the new Festival Director, Stella Hall, will be at her post in September), says that devolution questions have partly informed the choice: "It's not a heavy political statement, but there are parallels emerging between Ireland and the Catalan experience." The Festival will host the UK and Ireland premiere of Daaali by the Els Joglars company from Catalonia - the title is how Salvador Dali said his name. The all-female flamenco troupe, Sensaciones, will also perform (their leader, Sara Baras, didn't dance with Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 2, as the festival thought at first - she was too busy).
The famous English acapella group, The Sixteen, will perform religious music in Belfast's two cathedrals, St Anne's and St Peter's, Patricia Rosario, Julius Drake, Mark Padmore and Michael Chance will be among the performers of a season of French song at morning coffee concerts, and to celebrate the 70th birthday of conductor Vernon Handley, pianist John Lill will perform with the Ulster Orchestra (if his hands have recovered from being slashed in a recent attack). The full programme will be launched on September 6th and the festival runs from October 27th to November 12th.
While his version of Valle Inclan's Barbaric Comedies is running in Edinburgh, and his adaptation of Ibsen's Peer Gynt is due to go up at London's Royal National Theatre, Frank McGuinness's own epic play, Mutabilitie, will be given its Irish premiere in September, in a Theatreworks production. Michael Caven will direct this blend of history and myth, set amid the turbulence of 16th-century Ireland and featuring the characters of Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Sweeney and Queen Maeve. (Samuel Beckett Theatre, September 4th-23rd) . . . Anyone in the vicinity of West Cork on Saturday has the chance to buy a miniature, original work of art. Post- cards 2000, an exhibition at West Cork Arts Centre, will include work by artists - established and emerging - and celebrities on postcards costing £25. The artists' names will not be revealed until after the purchase.
Doors open on Saturday, at 3 p.m., West Cork Arts Centre, North Street, Skibbereen. Tel: 028-22090.
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