From the Archive: The Festival and Scottish plays

People who said there were only three Scottish plays worth reviving at the Edinburgh Festival, and that to try to find others was like scraping the bottom of the pot, were taking a too pessimistic view, said Mr Charles Graves, when he opened an exhibition of Edinburgh theatre posters at the Church of Scotland Arts and Crafts Centre at Eyre Place. At Festival time we were continually telling each other the development of the theatre in Scotland was a recent growth. That was not true, or at least only half true. The people of Edinburgh had, in the Middle Ages, a real love of play-acting, and fought hard to present their Robin Hood plays. The weakest link in the chain of Scottish dramatists came in the early half of the 19th century when Scott’s influence was strong. That led to numerous adaptations of his romances, which probably discouraged original work.