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Scotsman
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Life with the Libertines: Carl Barat's big sister tells her story at the Edinburgh Fringe
For years Lucie Barât lived in the shadow of her famous brother. Now she's the headline act as she shares her story in a new theatre show Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Lucie Barât grew up on a council estate in Basingstoke. She also grew up in New Age traveller camps and communes. The duality of her upbringing led on to a plurality of professions - acting, writing, performance poetry, publishing, singing - for this self-declared 'artistic Del Boy'. Lucie Barât, older sister of The Libertines Carl Barât, is telling her story in Standing In The Shadows Of Giants | Traverse Theatre But if you think the name sounds vaguely familiar it is likely that you are thinking of her younger brother Carl, co-frontman of The Libertines, one of the most ardently adored bands of the 21st century. Thanks to his notoriety, Lucie's best known role in adulthood has been as 'Carl Barât's sister'. And yet…. 'I was the golden girl who won this scholarship to drama school,' says Barât the elder, 'and he was the black sheep getting into trouble.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It's such a germane summation of affairs that she has used the line in her new autobiographical show, Standing in the Shadows of Giants, in which she gets to grips with her helter skelter existence, both personal and career-wise, her addictions, her sexuality, her experiences of misogyny in the arts and especially her siblings-on-steroids relationship with Carl. 'We ended up living together just after I graduated drama school,' she recalls. 'He dropped out of uni just after he started this band and he went up and I went down for lots of reasons. It's like a sibling love story of us dovetailing and coming back together and the pressures of where we gauge our success to be, the feelings of personal failure, everything it felt to have a little brother that overtook you to superstardom and the way that these young boys were held up and lauded by middle-aged music execs and stalked by celebrity cougars. The Libertines, including Lucie Barât's brother Carl, second from left. 'It was a fairly insane moment in time and throughout all of that I was having my own crumble. I was in the middle of these iconic figures and moments and instead of embracing it and thinking 'I'm at the centre of the universe', I felt I didn't belong here and was breaking inside. And then I go off to rehab. It's quite candid and confessional.' But in a funny way, and with songs. Director Bryony Shanahan is in full agreement. 'This one bares its heart clearly,' she says. 'The writing voice is very warm and funny so it leapt off the page. It struck me that the story is both incredibly relatable and totally extraordinary all at once. We all go through a coming of age where we're trying to work out who we are and there's probably a bumpy path anyway but for you to go through that in the pressure cooker that unfolded with your brother creates a pretty extraordinary experience.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Lucie Barat's Edinburgh Fringe show tells the story of her relationship with rock band the Libertines. | Corinne Cumming Growing up, it was Lucie and Carl versus the rest of the world. Their parents split - hence the wildly contrasting joint custody existence - then found new partners and had more kids. 'So our attachments were to each other rather than to a parent,' says Barât. 'We would fight as kids but we were also mates. Then I left home and thought 'I'm my own person' and he would just turn up to my work and I'd be like 'this is so embarrassing'. We were either absolutely inseparable or just taking it out on each other because the only people that could understand this confusing environment we'd been in was each other.' As the older sister, Barât was the first to jump, attending drama school in the late 1990s, graduating and promptly making her way to the Edinburgh Fringe with her freshly formed theatre company. 'I loved that but it doesn't f***ing pay,' she laments. There were less liberating experiences along the way which poisoned the acting well for Barât. In the following years, she wrote and performed poetry, formed a publishing company and attempted to follow her brother into music but found it to be 'an impenetrable period for any woman. You were either viewed as a groupie or disregarded. I remember the boys when they were signed being swept up by what seemed to me to be middle aged men using them as an excuse to do shitloads of coke and living through these skinny boys with unwashed hair. I'm trying to do what you're doing so why do I have to go and work in Pizza Hut but you're getting a private jet?' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad For a number of years, The Libertines were the toast of London, fronted by two likely lads tearing it up in ever ascending and then descending circles. Carl's equally charismatic co-frontman Peter Doherty was a one man rock'n'roll soap opera and tabloid target for his relationship with supermodel Kate Moss and the rather less glamorous matter of his spiraling addictions and their impact on band relations. Throughout this period, the Barât siblings were flatmates in London, only compounding the disparity in their fortunes. 'We were quite geeky,' she recalls. 'We used to get a jalfrezi and four cans of Stella and sat watching Pearl Harbor. I was almost mother to him but then they got signed, and he started coming home with insane amounts of cash. We were good friends essentially getting wrecked together going to afterparties.' She is at pains to point out that their sibling rivalry has long been put to bed in favour of stable family domesticity but admits that 'we did butt up a bit when Carl and Pete were having their thing, I'd charge at Pete on Carl's behalf so it got a bit messy. Then he was off doing his own thing and I had to sort myself out.' Sorting herself out included kicking her addiction to slimming pills and coming out. Both took several attempts, with the tipping point portrayed in the show. Barât's own music is also used as a conduit for her emotions. Some of her songs - including co-writes with Carl and Pete - will be performed live, while some were pre-recorded at The Libertines' Albion Rooms studio in Margate. There may even be some recorded cameos, but as Shanahan points out to Barât, 'it isn't a story about The Libertines or Carl. It's a story about you and they are the support act.'
Scotsman
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
18 - 24 August at Edinburgh Fringe 2025: Showcase returns with bold, personal and political performance
Here & Now Here & Now showcase returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year with a programme of bold, personal and political performance created in England, alongside internationally-renowned industry events. See our complete guide. Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Here & Now Showcase returns in 2025 with six bold and brilliant tour-ready performances from 18 -24 August. Featuring the best dance, installation, integrated performance, movement and theatre being created in England right now, it takes place in venues including Dance Base, Pleasance, Traverse Theatre and Zoo Venues. This year's showcase will bring 11 artists to the festival which includes 4 public performances in the Fringe, and 2 industry performances, with each artist bringing together and sharing backgrounds, lived experiences and expertise to explore themes of tradition and heritage, revolution and collective deliberation, community building and self discovery. Funded by Arts Council England, the showcase is presented by partner organisations Battersea Arts Centre, FABRIC and GIFT. The public performances in the Fringe include: Here & Now Nowhere by Khalid Abdalla, with Fuel Dates: 12-24 August, Times Vary Venue: Traverse Theatre In this intricate solo show inspired by his involvement in the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and the counter-revolution that followed, actor and activist Khalid Abdalla (The Day of the Jackal,The Kite Runner, The Crown) takes audiences on a surprising journey into his own history, set against a cartography of seismic world events. From the histories of colonialism and decolonisation; friendship and loss; protests and uprising against regimes across the world; to the violence in Gaza following the events of 7th October 2023, Khalid brings together the personal and the political in an act of anti-biography that asks how we got here and how we find agency amidst the mazes of history. Here & Now Last Rites by Ad Infinitum Dates: 18-24 August at 3.50pm Venue: Pleasance One at Pleasance Courtyard Travel from the UK to India in Last Rites; a stunning fusion of visual storytelling, electrifying movement, and an immersive soundscape, created by George Mann and Glasgow-based Ramesh Meyyappan. How do you say goodbye when words were never there? Arjun's father never learnt sign languageand now that he's gone, Arjun must find his own way to honour no spoken words, Last Rites features creative captions, Sign Language, and a deep, resonant soundtrack that can be felt and heard. Last Rites is accessible to deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing audiences alike. George Mann describes Last Rites as a powerful, funny, moving, captivating comments:'It's complex, but it's not dark - there are some beautiful, light moments of love and humour and it's ultimately uplifting. It's also visually spectacular - it's a physical and visual feast for the senses. Ramesh Meyyappan added: 'Everyone will relate to this show! It's a show for anyone - the story is so universal, so human.' Here & Now IV by SERAFINE1369 Dates: 19 -24 August at 3.50pm Venue: Assembly@Dance Base IV (4) considers cycles, time, divination and decomposition. A series of tableaux, a speaking clock and the sounds of a breaking storm set the scene, creating a stage for the fleeting meaning that emerges through shifting proximity and changing constellations. The four dancers engage in a detailed, meditative and expansive practice of constant movement, energetic tuning and impossible stillness. Talking about IV, SERAFINE1369 said: 'It will appeal to anyone who enjoys dancing or watching dance, and is intended to be an accessible piece for anyone – the dancing, the spontaneity and the unexpected happenings make for a compelling work, enhanced by the tense rhythm of the clock and the layered soundscore.' Here & Now The Legends of Them by Sutara Gayle AKA Lorna Gee/Hackney Showroom Dates: 19 – 24 August at 5.25pm Venue: Zoo Southside A memory: South London reggae pioneer Sutara Gayle AKA Lorna Gee hears her radio debut from Holloway Prison. Another: She's engulfed in the Brixton uprising sparked by the police shooting of her sister. And now she is here, a silent retreat, seeking spiritual guidance from her brother Mooji and ancestor Nanny of the Maroons, and a moment of transcendence. Powered by high-octane musical numbers and a virtuoso performance, the critically acclaimed, award-winning The Legends of Them is a breathtaking, roof-raising chronicle of Sutara's singular, extraordinary life – and of the legends that have guided her. Industry performances include: Here & Now A CITIZENS' ASSEMBLY by Andy Smith and Lynsey O'Sullivan What more should we be doing about the climate emergency? Be part of the story and join the debate with A CITIZENS' ASSEMBLY, a new work by acclaimed theatre maker Andy Smith, created in collaboration with Lynsey O'Sullivan. Talking about the work, Andy Smith said: 'It tells the story of some people meeting to discuss the climate emergency. The play is written to be performed by the audience and it's an attempt to address a big theme through a collective act of play which has been performed in a variety of venues from schools to city halls, empty shops to studio theatres. As a work, it wants to think about acting in both a theatrical and political sense. If I wanted the audience to take anything away it would be that there are multiple and different perspectives, that there isn't a singular answer, and that there is more chance of things changing if we work together.' Here & Now Sleight of Hand by Jo Bannon Sleight of Hand is a tactile installation for curious fingers and unbelieving eyes. Subverting the format of a touch tour, this sumptuous work invites participants to engage in a series of touch encounters with unknown objects, materials and matter. Integrating audio description, tactile design, choreography and an immersive ASMR soundscape, Sleight of Hand explores what we can discover if people loosen their grip on the known visual world and let senses wander. Additionally, Here & Now will host an industry event platforming previously showcased dance artists from England - Dan Daw Creative Projects, Bullyache and Sung Im Her - who will each pitch new, ambitious, large scale works, while two of last year's award winning Fringe artists, Josie Dale-Jones and Louise Orwin will also join the Here & Now artist cohort to build new international networks for their 2024 hit Fringe shows. Tickets and details
The Herald Scotland
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Val McDermid's new play has been 40 years in the making
The crime writer's long-time ambition to tackle the unsolved mystery over the death of 16th century English playwright and poet Christopher Marlowe is about to be realised at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, which has just been taken over by the Perthshire-born actor. Read more: McDermid sent Cumming her unperformed script for 'And Midnight Never Come' after plans to bring it to the stage of one of Edinburgh's best-known theatres were abandoned due to a lack of funding. However the play has been rebooted by Cumming in his first year as artistic director at Pitlochry, after agreeing to stage a special 'script-in-hand reading' ahead of his first season of full-scale productions in 2026. Alan Cumming is helping to bring Val McDermid's new play to the stage. (Image: Supplied) McDermid is working with director Philip Howard, former artistic director of the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, to bring to life her script, which will be performed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival the night after its Pitlochry premiere. And Midnight Never Come will focus on the run-up to the death of Marlowe, who was said to have been fatally stabbed in a guest house in Kent on May 30, 1593. Crime writer Val McDermid has sold more than 19 million books to date. (Image: PA) There have been centuries of debate and conflicting theories over Marlowe's death, including claims that he may have been killed over an involvement with espionage, was assassinated on the orders of Queen Elizabeth I, was targeted for his religious beliefs or was murdered by a former lover. McDermid, from Kirkcaldy in Fife, initially pursued a career as a journalist after studying English at Oxford University. She said: 'I was captivated by Marlowe as a writer when I was an undergraduate student. When I read up on what is known about his life I found it fascinating. "The more I read and discovered the more the version of his death seemed to be implausible. 'I came up with my own theory about what happened to him and that's what underpins the play, although I don't want to say any more about that theory. People will have to come and see it for themselves. 'When you are writing something that is rooted in the past you know certain things. It's about trying to come up with a story that makes sense with the facts that we know. That's what I've done with Marlowe. "My first attempts at this were more than 40 years ago. I just couldn't work out how to do it structurally and tell the story that I had in my head. I went back to it time and again over the years." McDermid has sold more than 19 million books and seen her work translated into more than 40 different languages since her first attempt at a novel when she was working as a trainee journalist in Devon. She recalled: 'My first attempt at a book was full of tortured relationships and all the big emotions – grief, rage, jealousy and love. It was truly terrible although I did finish it. 'But I also sent it to a friend of mine who was an actor and she said to me: 'I don't know much about books, but I think this would make a really good play.' 'I thought: 'That's easy. I'll just cross out the descriptions and leave in the speaking bits.' That's essentially what I did.' 'I wrote some extra scenes to cover the bits I'd crossed out and went to the local theatre. The director was very excited about it and said it would be perfect for a season of new plays. 'Completely by accident, I was a professionally performed playwright by the age of 23. 'I thought it was the start of something big and that I was going to be the new Harold Pinter, but it didn't work out that way.' Although McDermid's debut was adapted by the BBC, her career as a playwright was halted when was dropped by her agent 'after a couple of years of not making him any money.' The writer recalled: 'I just couldn't write any more plays because I didn't understand what I'd done right. The ambition and desire were there, but unfortunately skills and ability were not. Nowadays you can go off on a course and learn the nuts and bolts of your craft. But that wasn't really available back then. 'I just didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. I thought I should go off and do something that I understood how it worked. I had read a lot of crime fiction since I was about nine years old, so I thought I could maybe have a crack at a crime novel. 'At the time, in the early 1980s, the only British crime fiction that was around were village mysteries and police procedurals. I felt I didn't know enough about the police to write a convincing police procedural novel, so I got a bit stuck. 'What finally got me moving was when a friend of mine who had moved to America sent me a copy of Sara Paretsky's first novel, one of the early iterations of so-called new-wave feminist crime fiction. 'Her private eye character was a woman who had a brain and a sense of humour. She didn't rely on the guys to do the heavy lifting. When the going got tough she just got tougher. What I also liked about her novel was its strong sense of place. There was a sense that the story arose from the city of Chicago. It had a sense of social politics as well. That book really inspired me to get started.' McDermid's debut novel, Report for Murder, was published in 1987 and kick-started a career which has seen her write more than 50 books to date, and develop five separate series. One of the most recent, focusing on the detective Karen Pirie, is about to return to ITV for a second series this month, with Lauren Lyle returning to the lead role. McDermid's return to theatre work has emerged seven years after a foray into the lunchtime drama series A Play, A Pie and A Pint, with political comedy Margaret Saves Scotland, about a Yorkshire schoolgirl who returns from a holiday filled with a burning desire for Scottish independence. The experience of working on that show with director Marilyn Imrie persuaded McDermid to return to the idea of a play about the Marlowe mystery several decades after she had first started to work on it. McDermid's play, which depicts the last day of Marlowe's life as well as key events in his life, was snapped up by the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh and went into development for a full production, which was shelved after the theatre decided it was unaffordable. McDermid was in talks over a possible performance of her script at last year's book festival, which did not go ahead due to a programme organised to mark 200 years of James Hogg's novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Within weeks, though, Cumming had been unveiled as Pitlochry Festival Theatre's new artistic director. McDermid said: 'When Alan took over at Pitlochry I thought: 'I'll let Alan take a look at it.' 'He got very excited about it and said: 'This is fantastic, I love it, we must talk about it.' 'He said would talk to me about it at the Winter Words book festival earlier this year. 'The weekend went on and nothing had happened. I said to my partner: 'I think he was just being nice.' 'After the final event at the festival, he collared me and said: 'We have to talk now!' 'He told me he wanted to do a rehearsed reading of it. I said that the Edinburgh book festival had talked about doing that, but it hadn't actually happened. He suggested that it was done as a joint project. Two days later we were all in a Zoom call to sort out the details. It was amazing. 'My main hope now is that people out and enjoy it. I also hope that a producing theatre will have someone in the audience who thinks: 'We should be putting this on stage.' 'I know theatres have timetables, schedules and budgets. I'm not putting any pressure on anyone to do it. 'But I would love it if it was on at Pitlochry because there is such a great team there and it's a place where you can have a real day out. They've got a wonderful restaurant, you can eat in the restaurant and then go and see a play. 'Alan is a man of great passions, his work-rate is phenomenal, and he just makes things happen for people. He's the kind of person we need working in the arts at the moment.' McDermid's Marlowe play will finally see the light of day in Pitlochry and Edinburgh in the wake of her book interpreting the story of Lady Macbeth. She said: 'My idea of the perfect novel is one where you don't have to do any research at all because you already know everything you need to know. But that never happens. 'With historical stuff, it's a case of digging down, looking at all the available sources and working your way through them. It just takes a bit longer before you can get started on the writing. 'It does create more work when you write historical books, but when an idea roots itself in your head the only way you can get rid of it is to write it."
The Herald Scotland
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
Vast cultural archive to be moved from Scotland to Poland
Demarco's collection, which spans more than 60 years, includes around 4500 paintings and drawings, as well as around a million photographs, books, posters, letters and catalogues. Read more: Demarco - who announced the relocation of his archive to coincide with his 95th birthday - has been a key figure in Edinburgh's cultural scene since the 1960s, when he was one of the founders of the Traverse Theatre and launched his own art gallery in the city. Joseph Beuys, Tadeusz Kantor, Marina Abramovic, Paul Neagu, and Rasa Todosijevic are among the artists he invited to perform and exhibit their work in Scotland for the first time. Richard Demarco has been forced to relocate his archive from the Summerhall arts centre in Edinburgh after more than a decade. (Image: Gordon Terris) Demarco is believed to have one of the biggest collections of material relating to Edinburgh's having attended or been involved in the city's annual cultural celebration every year since they were launched in 1947. He is said to have crossed the Iron Curtain dozens of times as part of his efforts to bring artists from across Europe to the Scottish capital. Demarco has announced an agreement with the Muzeum Sztuki, in the city of Lodz, where he was made an honorary citizen in 2008 in recognition of his prolonged support for Polish artists and culture. Demarco, who was born in Edinburgh, told The Herald he had made more than 40 trips to Poland since his first visit in 1968. He said: "I'm not disappointed that the archive is going to Poland. It isn't a Scottish cultural collection. It is a collection of European art. "I have been blessed by the Edinburgh Festival, which changed my life in 1947. It has never happened without me experiencing it. It was never enough for me to be a festivalgoer. I had to contribute to it." Although the majority of the collection will be leaving Scotland, a significant amount will be housed and displayed at a recently-revamped 19th century farm steading in East Lothian. Demarco is also working with tech entrepreneur George Mackintosh, who has been restoring Papple Steading, near Haddington, for the last five years into an agricultural heritage centre, holiday homes and events complex. Part of the Polish museum will be refurbished to house the Demarco Archive to ensure the collection can properly exhibited and studied there. It will also be collaborating with the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dunde and Papple Steading on a project to digitise the collection so it will be available to explore and study from anywhere in the world in future. Some of the Demarco Archive pre-dating 1995 has been in the care of the National Galleries of Scotland for years. It is due to be moved to a new cultural centre and visitor attraction on Edinburgh's waterfront in future, although the start of work on the project had been delayed indefinitely due to a lack of public funding. Most of Demarco's collection has been in storage or on display across 13 different rooms at the Edinburgh arts centre Summerhall for more than a decade. Demarco, who had been offered space for the archive by Summerhall founder Robert McDowell, launched a search for a new home for the majority of his collection last October, months after the complex was put up for sale. A luxury housebuilder has secured a deal to snap up the site, subject to planning permission being secured. Speaking last year, Demarco said: 'I've never actually owned a gallery or a theatre. I have somehow put on hundreds of exhibitions and stage productions in temporary spaces, but I have never secured a home in Edinburgh. "The archive was created in Edinburgh and the heart of it is the history of the Edinburgh Festival. But at the moment, I cannot see a space in Edinburgh that is going to welcome me.' Muzeum Sztuki director Daniel Muzyczuk said: 'On the occasion of Richard Demarco's 95th birthday, we celebrate a visionary curator whose life has been deeply intertwined with Polish art and culture. 'He has been a passionate advocate for Polish artists, tirelessly introducing their work to audiences across the UK and Europe. 'Demarco's commitment to fostering culture exchange has opened doors for painters, sculptors, and performance artists from Poland. His long-standing friendship with the Museum Sztuki has resulted in numerous collaborative projects. 'Through joint initiatives with the museum, he helped bring avant-garde Polish art into dialogue with Western European audiences. 'Over decades, Richard has supported emerging talents from Poland, ensuring their voices are heard on the international stage. 'As he turns 95, we honour Richard Demarco's remarkable legacy of solidarity, artistic vision, and profound connection to Poland.' Demarco said: 'It was of paramount importance to find such fitting new homes for the collection here in in Scotland and in Lodz. 'I extend great thanks to both teams for their commitment over the last few months to make this happen. 'I am extremely happy that scholars and students will be able to access the collection in person and online over the years ahead.' Mr Mackintosh said: 'Richard's father was born in Dunbar, in East Lothian, and he spent his childhood in the towns of Musselburgh and Portobello. 'Richard has been a vigorous advocate of the environment for decades. Richard has brought his work to this farm, at which we will celebrate 'art in agriculture' in future."
Scotsman
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Playwright Douglas Maxwell on 25 years of hits, from Our Bad Magnet to So Young
With two of his acclaimed plays being restaged this year, Douglas Maxwell reflects on a quarter of a century spent working in and for Scotland. Interview by Joyce McMillan Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Douglas Maxwell can remember the day – almost 30 years ago now – when he realised that he could become a playwright. He had loved working on theatre shows at school in Girvan, he had played in bands, and as a student at Stirling University in the early 1990s he had co-founded the Stirling University Musical Theatre Society. It was in his final year, though, that he was fiddling around with a script in his room one day when a sudden thought hit him. 'Wait a minute,' he said to himself, 'some people actually do this for a job.' And from that moment, through good times and bad, his fate was sealed; as he launched himself on a career that has seen more than 40 Douglas Maxwell plays and adaptations produced in Scotland since 2000. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad His career has also led, over the last two years, to Maxwell's unique achievement in winning the Best New Play category two years running at the annual Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland. In 2024, Maxwell won for his remarkable double monologue The Sheriff Of Kalamaki, at A Play, A Pie and A Pint; and this month, he took the prize again for his 2024 Fringe hit So Young, a superbly well made four-handed drama, staged at the Traverse Theatre last August, about the reaction of a midlife Glasgow couple when their recently widowed friend suddenly acquires a new girlfriend 25 years his junior. Douglas Maxwell 'I think I graduated into one of the very good times for Scottish playwriting,' says Maxwell, who emerged from university in 1995, and began to follow in the footsteps of the outstanding generations of Scottish playwrights who emerged from the Traverse Theatre, and later the Tron, in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. 'There were so many great role models around,' he says. 'David Greig, Chris Hannan, David Harrower, so many more – wherever I looked, whatever I wanted to do, there was always someone there who could say – yes, I found a way to do that, and so can you.' His first play Our Bad Magnet, about teenage boys growing up in Girvan, premiered at the Tron in 2000; and since then the vast majority of Maxwell's plays have been produced by theatre companies in Scotland. 'Because of all the pressures in theatre today,' says Maxwell, 'most playwrights feel compelled to develop their work in other directions as well. They start to write for television or film, or go into directing, and end up running a theatre for ten years, as David Greig has just done at the Lyceum. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Sign up to our FREE Arts & Culture newsletter at 'But for more than 25 years now, I've just had this one string to my bow, which is writing plays for theatre, mainly here in Scotland. And I don't honestly want to do anything else.' The good news for Maxwell fans is that two of his recent plays are about to reappear on Scotland's stages. His 2024 CATS winner So Young – co-produced by the Citizens' Theatre and Glasgow-based touring company Raw Material – will form part of the Citizens' exciting reopening season this autumn. And this weekend, the Tron Theatre opens a new summer production of his 2022 Play, Pie, and Pint monologue Man's Best Friend, an acclaimed solo drama which notes the extraordinary role pets played in so many lives during lockdown, and revolves around the character of Ronnie, originally played by Jonathan Watson, a recently widowed man in Glasgow who develops a half-hearted career as a dog-walker, after everything else in his life goes wrong. This time around, Ronnie will be played by Jordan Young, much-loved star of River City, Scotsquad and the annual Edinburgh pantomime. 'Jordan's a younger actor,' says Maxwell, 'which brings a slightly different energy to the story. And what I particularly love is that he's an actor who really can shift from comedy to real tragedy in a single sentence. That absolutely suits my work down to the ground, because my plays are always funny, and always tragic.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Maxwell turned 50 last year, and lives in Glasgow's south side with his wife Caroline Newall, artistic development director at the National Theatre of Scotland, and their two daughters. And Maxwell does have one extra string to his professional bow as a teacher of playwriting. His workshops and playwriting courses are legendary, and he loves the work so much that he also reads many scripts sent to him by young writers for free, simply as a way of helping them along. His own playwriting, though, remains his main preoccupation, as he mulls over possible new projects for next year, and nurses Man's Best Friend and So Young towards their new stagings. 'Both of these plays come out of the lockdown experience, really,' says Maxwell. 'And both of them involve characters who are being asked or expected to 'move on', but who can't, because they haven't really had a chance to mourn. I'm asking what happens if you haven't had a chance to mark a death, or to remember a life, in the way that we should remember and mourn, as a social act. I think a lot of people are still carrying those scars from the pandemic; and in theatre, we can at least come together to ask that question, and to recognise that pain, before we try to turn towards the future.'
