You may have read today's articles in The Herald and on heraldscotland.com about Laurie Sansom's plans for his first season at the National Theatre of Scotland, highlighting two plays - Rantin and The Great Don't Know Show - addressing identity and next year's independence poll.
We spoke for well over an hour, and I couldn't fit all of Mr Sansom's quotes into a news story, so here are some topics we covered in greater depth, and some new issues he addressed, in his own words.
We spoke at the NTS headquarters in Spiers Lock.
On Rantin:
"It's a piece that explores the plurality of identities in Scotland and it's a brilliant piece to take on the road to start next year's programme and to start a debate and to interrogate what national identity means. It's a very charming, informal piece. It has four actors and two singer songwriters and it's almost like a gig format with songs. You meet a lot of characters around lots of different locations in Scotland. It asks to us to understand how very, very diverse people Scotland is, but how they are all connected under this banner of a certain national identity. We want it to kickstart a discussion and a debate and to get people to write for us."
On The Great Don't Know Show:
"David Greig is very pro-independence and Dave MacLennan is very anti-independence, which I didn't realise when I was putting it together, but they 'outed' themselves - so I am really pleased about that.
"What they wanted to do is find a format where a lot of viewpoints, some very partisan, can be given a forum and a structure, so we are going to be commissioning a lot of artists to write sketches, songs, rants, moments, statements and that will provide them with a menu, so when they turn up in different communities, they can shape that evening's entertainment to where they are, according to what people have sent in, or posted online. Hopefully there will be a multitude of things to draw on.
"The company that will be a combination of actors, writers and musicians, with David and David sharing the roles as editors, writers, directors. It will be like the circus arriving in town.
"It pays homage to various types of popular theatre such as 7:84 and Wildcat, that were touring around, that were broad and populist but were also asking some questions in a sophisticated way. And the idea is that both shows can play rooms above pubs, large town halls and theatres, so the scale can expand and diminish depending on where they are played. It's exciting and of course of they can be reactive and not be commissioned too far in advance."
On interaction:
"Both shows will use really innovative ways of using social media so the whole nation can engage even if it is coming nowhere near you, you can contribute. These two plays are most 'on the nose' response to what is going on next year. But what I think what is interesting is that [the referendum] is the pre-occupation of all Scottish artists, even if it is oblique, the whole programme will be responding to questions about cultural heritage, about what national identity actually means - an interesting year but totally unique."
On politics:
"It's very different for the company to have a political viewpoint, and the artist having one. We have got to be a vehicle for artists to express passionate opinion, and we would do that with a different piece of work - we have produced political work, whether it's about the economy or the war, but that doesn't mean the company is holding that viewpoint. It's a really different thing.
On living in Glasgow:
"I feel very at home, it feels like I have been here a long time, even though I haven't but that's probably because of the rate the company works, I have been to a lot of shows since I have been here. I love being in Glasgow, I feel very much at home. I feel I have been given a very warm welcome by the artists and the sector."
On Muriel Spark:
"I am adapting a Muriel Spark novel. I am a bit of a Sparkist, I was outed as one at the Aye Write festival...I think there's an extraordinary, disinterested, ironic, cool voice to her work whilst still actually taking some dark, disturbing philosophical stories, and somehow that combination is, I think, quite electric and unique. And essentially very dramatic, I think. Her work is eminently adaptable.
On Scotland's culture:
"I make the comparisons with the climate in England. And for me Fiona Hyslop's speech really laid out a landscape and expressed what was being felt but put it at the heart of government policy which I think is an amazing thing. I thought it was magnificent and it really set the tone for collaboration, which seems to be part of the fabric of the culture in Scotland. It was a rebuff of Maria Miller's [culture minister in England] depressing speech. It nailed the government's colours to the mast and it was such a refreshing thing to hear a cabinet secretary say."
On expanding the NTS national reach:
"It's been something I have been thinking about, how we can go beyond just arriving with a fabulous NTS show we have created in Glasgow every year, and how we can join up what we are doing so we have some presence across the country year-in and year-out. I think that is something we can only do with the support of other agencies, other companies and Creative Scotland. I think those discussions are starting to happen: whether we have an artist in residence, or locations where there are year long grassroots activity or whatever it is."
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