John Mcgrath Quotes

“The year is 1973 and a transit van tours the Highlands of Scotland with a show that was to become legendary in the history of Scottish theatre and emblematic of the alternative theatre movement in Britain. The play is The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil by John McGrath and the company is 7:84. That statistic in its name, added to the stamped lettering and its manifesto tone, at once nodded to the radical theatres of the European avant-garde and foreshadowed the performative aspects of later movements like Occupy Wall St, where an economic statistic also became a slogan. This modest tour of the Scottish Highlands overturned centuries-old preconceptions about the absence of a theatrical tradition in Scotland, while also making a crucial contribution internationally to our understanding of political theatre.”
― Olga Taxidou, The Oxford Handbook of Scottish Theatre