Nova Scotia, Traverse

The 1970s saw an incredible rise in the profile of Scottish theatre. The Edinburgh festival season continued to grow in size and importance, and Scottish stages and companies found growing acclaim with their own productions. The decade also saw the premiere of some of its most important, original plays. The Slab Boys, written by John Byrne, received its debut in 1978 at the Traverse Theatre. Not only would it establish Byrne as a major Scottish voice but would also launch the careers of others, including original director David Hayman and cast member Robbie Coltrane.

In writing the play, Byrne had drawn on personal experience. He had served as a slab boy (a paint mixer) at the carpet manufacturer A.F Stoddard before embarking on his more notable career as an artist. Setting the action in the very shop he worked in, many of the characters were based on people he knew. Protagonist Phil McCann, a young aspiring artist, served as a personal surrogate to the playwright himself. It proved immensely popular and was followed with Byrne penning two other plays using the same characters: Cuttin’ a Rug in 1979 and Still Life in 1982.

The plays’ success led Byrne to become one of Scotland’s most respected artistic voices. He would go on to write other pieces, including the BAFTA Award-winning Tutti Frutti, and would continue his lucrative career as an artist. Although, recently it seems to be his personal life, notably the infamous love triangle between himself, long-term partner Tilda Swinton and Sandro Kopp, which is at the fore of media attention.

However, Byrne has returned to the centre of focus with the premiere of his latest play, the fourth instalment in the Slab Boys saga: Nova Scotia. Opening almost exactly thirty years after the premiere of the first play, Nova Scotia again finds Byrne’s hero Phil McCann onstage. As he faces the new millennium, an older McCann dreams of becoming the artistic voice of modern Caledonia and hopes that his impending radio interview with a leading arts correspondent will pave the way to his desired fame.

There had been talk of a new addition to the well-established Slab Boys Trilogy back when the Traverse Theatre restaged the plays as the headliner to its fortieth anniversary celebration in 2003. With years of anticipation and the pressure of previous success, Byrne is about to discover if audiences are ready for an expansion into the Slab Boys universe and the parallel worlds of Byrne and McCann.