Dr Mark Brown, who recently wrote his PhD on contemporary drama, supervised by Dr Jo George, has now published it with Macmillan. His book focuses on the revolution that has occurred on the Scottish stage since the late 1960s. Dr Brown, who is also a leading theatre reviewer, has written the first critical history mapping the key trends in this extraordinarily creative and fertile period.
Modernism and Scottish Theatre since 1969: A Revolution on Stage, by Mark Brown
This book is the first monograph on what author and Scottish theatre critic of The Times Allan Radcliffe refers to as “the most creatively fertile period in Scottish theatre history.” The volume traces what Brown terms the “European Modernist renaissance” in Scottish theatre from the arrival of path-breaking theatre director Giles Havergal at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in 1969, through the creation of the pioneering touring company Communicado in the 1980s, to the emergence of the “golden generation” of Scottish playwrights in the 1990s and the arrival of the National Theatre of Scotland in the early years of the 21st century. Combining largely original research with a series of ten exclusive interviews with leading figures in modern Scottish theatre, the book is based upon Brown’s doctoral thesis, which was undertaken at the English Department of the University of Dundee under the supervision of Dr. Jo. George.
“Every page of Mark Brown’s excellent book sings with his passion for his subject. His research is meticulous and his arguments set out with clarity, but this is no dry-as-a-bone treatise. He illuminates every chapter with the same readability and breadth of knowledge he brings to his award-winning work as a theatre critic. Reading his book opened my mind to a whole new way of thinking about how we make theatre in Scotland.” (Maureen Beattie, actor)
“Mark Brown has given us a very well-directed and perceptive exploration of the issues salient to the trajectory of contemporary Scottish theatre. Rooted in serious, conceptual thinking and rigorous, largely original research, this book is a combination of scholarship and hard-won clarity of thought. Highly recommended for all undergraduate and graduate collections.” (Professor Savas Patsalidis, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece)
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Modernism and Scottish Theatre since 1969: A Revolution on Stage, by Mark Brown, available now from Palgrave Macmillan