The summer seasons have ended and folks are planning and anticipating the Festival and Fringe, so it is a treat and surprise to have a play to look forward to in this usually fallow time in theatrical terms. And the Holyrood Amateur Theatrical Society (HATS) are just the folk to do it!
Established in 2005, this ambitious group of thespians has been putting on two shows per year. They have performed in The Pleasance, St Bride's Centre and the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Most recently they staged two short plays written by HATS members Gregor Shanks and Rob Salvin with great success.
Their well received repertoire has included an updated version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Liz Lochhead’s Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off, Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit and Goodbye Jimmy by Alasdair Gray. It was doing the latter that suggested to the group that another Alasdair Gray play would be a good idea so it is a happy chance that the HATS committee voted for the highly comic tale of political shenanigans, McGrotty and Ludmilla.
A modern pantimime
The story was published as a novel in 1990 but was previously broadcast in 1975 on London BBC radio and subsequently staged at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow in 1987. McGrotty and Ludmilla, a modern pantomime loosely based on the story of Aladdin and set in 1980s Whitehall,is described on the Gray designed poster as “A Legend of the Thatcher Era”.
To quote HATS publicity: “...the play follows the adventures of the uncouth and unpolished young Scot Mungo McGrotty amongst the Machiavellian civil service mandarins of 1980s Whitehall. His career is slowly going nowhere until McGrotty is seduced into a scheme to steal the mysterious and deadly Harbinger report. Will he beat the villainous Sir Arthur Shots at his own game? And can he win the heart of the ruthlessly posh Ludmilla along the way?”
And who could resist such a tempting plot, particularly when Gray himself has been involved in the production?
The play’s director, Gregor Shanks, has been a fan of Gray for many years and corresponded with the great man by postcard in his (relatively recent!) youth. His reading of Gray’s fabulous Scottish epic novel, Lanark, that put dear old Glasgow town on the literary map, had a life-changing effect on him as it was catalyst to his going on to study English literature at University. Imagine the thrill, then, of being able to work with your hero!
The accessible Alasdair Gray
Alasdair Gray, described by Will Self as a ‘creative polymath with an integrated politico-philosophic vision’, is a giant in Scotland’s literary and artistic world so it speaks volumes about the man that he is willing to give of his time so generously to an amateur theatrical group - and one from Edinburgh at that!
In April, the cast were invited through to Gray’s flat in The Dear Green Place (Glasgow to the uninitiated) where, in the tradition of George Bernard Shaw, their host, between brewing what I’m told was a braw cup of tea, read the entire play to them.
In the spirit of the book cover’s production for the 1990 publication, where the face of the actor Kevin McGonigle, who played McGrotty in the 1987 Tron production, was “copied... in the part”, Gray has used some faces of the HATS cast for their unique poster for the play. Honour indeed!
Gray’s writing style often involves his speaking directly to the reader through the prose. In McGrotty and Ludmilla, this involves some very funny footnotes explaining the use of Scots words in the text like bauchle and dawdle, for non Scots speaking readers. These footnotes have been built, no doubt with comic effect, in to the play. There is significantly a decline of McGrotty’s use of Scots as he ascends the ladder to the very top of the Whitehall tree. Tak tent!
The set design by Joanna Marshall, the founder of HATS, is to include mock stained glass windows showing London landmarks, which sounds fantastic. This summer panto has been described as ‘daft and enjoyable’ and having read the book and met the cast, I’ve no doubt that’s true!
Show details:
McGrotty and Ludmilla runs at the Roxy Art House, 22-24 July, 7.30pm
Tickets: £7/£5 (concessions) available via http://hatsedinburgh.co.uk/ and http://www.thebooth.co.uk.