theatre feature
Edinburgh 365
Scottish playwright David Harrower battles against Inverness’s mobile reception to talk to Jennifer McGregor
David Harrower has written six original plays, including his acclaimed debut, ‘Knives In Hens,’ as well as numerous adaptations and translations. His latest work, ‘365’, is being staged by The National Theatre Of Scotland at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, directed by Vicky Featherstone. The story follows a group of young people in care, attempting to discover who they are as they enter the surreal and transitory world of a ‘practice flat’, the eleventh and final stage of being “in care,” and take their first faltering steps towards adulthood.
TW: How did you become a playwright?
DH: I don’t really know, I took quite a roundabout route. I’d been writing for years before ‘Knives In Hens’ was produced. At the time I was washing dishes in an Edinburgh restaurant. Shit jobs give you focus.
TW: What was your earliest involvement with the Festival?
DH: I grew up in Edinburgh and it was always an exciting time of year. I went to lots of shows when I was younger and got the chance to see a lot of plays that I wasn’t aware of – plays which wouldn’t usually be put on in theatres in Edinburgh. I saw my first Sam Shepard play here at about 22 and my first Pinter was a Fringe production.
TW: Do you think it’s particularly important that this production is being staged at the Edinburgh Festival, or could it have made just as much of an impact at any other time of year?
DH: I’m not quite sure. Edinburgh is an international festival so you’ll get a wider range of people seeing it, and it will be sitting alongside international theatre. It’ll allow the work to resound for a while. But then there will also be people coming to it with greater expectations. I try not to think about it too much – too much anxiety!
TW: How did the process of creating ‘365’ differ from your normal process?
DH: Normally, I would stay at home and write a play. It would be based on images or thoughts or snippets of conversation, whereas ‘365’ meant responding to specific topics, doing a lot of research, getting into the rehearsal room with the actors and building a story round them. We’re still rewriting even now, it’s an ongoing process. I wouldn’t really call it a play because it’s such a different approach, but it is a piece of theatre and the experience has been quite fraught and exhilarating.
TW: How would you feel about using this approach again?
DH: Next time I think I’ll go back to sitting in a room and writing, but I might do this again in the future. It’s exciting and lets you get to know the actors. You can allow them to come up with their own stuff and use their experiences. I went into the rehearsal room for ‘365’ with twenty pages containing four or five characters. It was the actors who expanded them by responding to our research.
TW: This is the third of your plays staged the National Theatre of Scotland. Is it safe to assume that you enjoy working with them?
DH: They’ve used my pre-existing texts before, but those experiences can’t be compared with this. ‘365’ is quite different. It’s definitely an exciting company to be involved with!
TW: What’s next for you?
DH: I need to go and write another play, for the sake of my sanity! I’ve got a project coming up where I’ll be working with students from the RSAMD. I’ll also be writing the screenplay for a film version of my play, ‘Blackbird’ – contracts have been signed, now we’ll just have to see whether it gets made. But there will certainly be another play first!
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The National Theatre of Scotland's production of '365' was performed at the Edinburgh Playhouse as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.
published: Oct-2008
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