There has probably never been a more relevant week to premiere a dissection of whatever's left of the newspaper industry, and the National Theatre of Scotland's eloquently realised cut-up of interviews with 43 main-stage players goes beyond any fears of self-reflexive brow-beating.
While it will never top last week's events at the Leveson Inquiry, when Rupert and James Murdoch were forced to account for their own actions and the culture of newspapers they were in charge of, Enquirer paints a thought-provoking and poignant portrait of a bruised industry being dragged through the mud.
As the audience enter the unused top-floor open-plan office of a real-life media hub, with piles of unsold newspapers used as seats, we're promenaded from desk to desk. It's particularly telling about the state newspapers are in. From morning conference to putting the paper to bed, the story, as related by a fantastic cast of six playing composites of journalistic archetypes, is one of a high-pressure industry in freefall, in which the practitioners, as one subject says, are regarded by the public as "second-class citizens".
Shaped by co-directors Vicky Featherstone and John Tiffany with co-editor Andrew O'Hagan from interviews conducted by journalists Paul Flynn, Deborah Orr and Ruth Wishart, the narrative is plain to see. The interviews depicted are vital, with John Bett's study of Times editor Roger Alton a hilarious counterpoint to Billy Riddoch as former Scottish Sun editor Jack Irvine and Maureen Beattie's heartbreaking war reporter Ros Wynne-Jones. Documentary theatre at its devastating best. And that's on the record.
HHHH
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article