Tradition and Revolution in Scottish Drama and Theatre: An Open Debate?

The review article aims to call attention to Mark Brown’s recent study on Scottish theatre since 1969, the year that he identifies with the beginning in Scotland of a “revolution on stage” triggered by the reception and absorption of various aspects of European Modernist aesthetics on the part of some playwrights, theatre directors and companies. The book, well-founded and reader-engaging, is a must for anyone (expert or non) interested in Scottish theatre studies. However, the picture of Scottish history that ensues from it is incomplete, since, contrary to what archival scholarly research has proved, the author suggests that the 1560 Calvinist Reformation stamped out theatre and drama in Scotland for centuries, and it was only in the 1930s that it began coming out of that slump