Dramatic claims

Michael Fry (Opinion, 7 August) gaily tells us that there have been only two great Scottish plays in the past 500 years, The Thrie Estaitis and Black Watch.

Utter rubbish - though on a par with his next statement, that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is "the greatest British play of the late 20th century".

How does Mr Fry arrive at his notion of a "great" play? If measured against the supreme achievements of world drama - Macbeth, say, or Phdre (both of which have excellent Scots translations, incidentally) - then neither of the two Scottish plays he mentions attains to those heights; and to suggest that the Stoppard play comes close would be ridiculous.

If measured against the corpus of what by any serious critical standards are good plays, then the Scottish repertoire contains dozens which make that grade: as merely the first that spring to mind, there's Robert McLellan's Jamie the Saxt, Sydney Goodsir Smith's The Wallace, Stewart Conn's The Burning, Ena Lamont Stewart's Men should Weep, Bill Bryden's Willie Rough, James Bridie's The Anatomist and Donald Campbell's The Widows of Clyth.

On any showing, these plays are of a standard deserving of regular professional production; and since they are part of the national dramatic corpus they should be performed by all Scottish companies, including the National Theatre, and showcased by the Edinburgh Festival.

DERRICK McCLURE

Rosehill Terrace

Aberdeen