Nation, Community, Self. Female Voices in Scottish Theatre from the Late Sixties to the Present

From the late 1960s until the present day, a significant number of women playwrights have emerged in the Scottish theatre who have made a pioneering contribution to dramatic innovation and experimentation. Despite existing critical reassessment of some of these authors in the last twenty years, their invaluable achievement in playwriting, within and outside Scotland, still deserves more thorough investigations and fuller acknowledgement. Nation, Community, Self: Female Voices in Scottish Theatre from the Seventies to the Present explores what is still uncharted territory by examining a selection of representative texts by Joan Ure, Liz Lochhead, Marcella Evaristi, Jackie Kay, Sue Glover, Ann Marie di Mambro, and Sharman MacDonald. The three macro-thematic areas of the book – rewriting of the Shakespearean canon; representation of female communities and minorities; and conflicts between the self and society – find significant and paradigmatic expression in their dramas. All seven writers examined in this book have explored new theatrical methods, introduced aesthetic innovations and opened new perspectives to engage with the complexities of national, community and individual identities. This study will surely contribute to wider recognition of their achievement, so that their work can never again be described as “uncharted territory”.