A Genuinely National Theatre

"One thing that's vital for us is creating 'world-class theatre', or theatre which can hold its own on the international stage for us to justify being a national theatre." Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone, speaking about the National Theatre of Scotland's presence at the Edinburgh Festival, is rehearsing one of two productions NTS is premiering this summer. "So, to have this platform is really vital to us as part of our work.

Less than three years ago, the National Theatre of Scotland was an idea on the verge of emergence. Its first few productions were moderately received, but the organisation seemed to have as many critics and doubters as it had supporters

All of that changed during the 2006 Edinburgh Festival. Featherstone's decision to take a gamble and launch two productions, one at the official Edinburgh International Festival and the other as part of the Fringe Festival, showcasing at the Traverse, was to pay off. Realism, NTS's International Festival entry, enjoyed not only critical but public success. However, it was NTS's Fringe production, Black Watch, which would not only become a world-wide phenomenon but also firmly establish the new company in the eyes of the international theatre community

Two years later, and Featherstone's two-play tradition continues. After another successful run last year with its International Festival's sell-out hit The Bacchae and the critically acclaimed Fringe production of Venus as a Boy, the pressure is on for NTS's artistic eminence to continue. Rather than playing it safe, Featherstone has selected two challenging pieces for this year's productions. For the International Festival, with Featherstone herself at the helm, is the play 365; for the Fringe, NTS and New York-based company the TEAM are co-producing Architecting.

Featherstone is clearly passionate about the subject matter at the heart of 365: Britain's childcare system. "It's about that kind of crossover between childhood and adulthood for children who have had very complicated lives." Set in a 'Practice Flat', a place for young people to learn the basics of adult life (such as cooking and cleaning), the play follows a group of youths caught in 'the system'. "We think we know about it and we think we understand it…but actually it's much more complicated than we know.

Calling upon extensive research, Featherstone is collaborating with both her cast and acclaimed playwright David Harrower to shape the production. "Some of the characters David came up with before we went into rehearsal. And we've given some of the cast some sort of stimuli to come up with something; and we've taken these characters further (in rehearsal) and David then goes home and actually writes the scenes.

Working on the piece has made Featherstone even more fervent about the subject matter. "It feels to me that the tolerance level for child misery just gets higher and higher and higher and we have to understand it in a different way.

Choosing to focus on the political rather than the emotional, spending more time with character than plot and incorporating highly stylised movement to convey story, Featherstone is attempting to ask pertinent questions rather than relying on the driving forces of sentiment and guilt.

Also relying on stylised theatrics will be NTS's other production: Architecting. Using multi-media and music, Architecting gives a theatrical reflection of America through the ages. Associate Director Davey Anderson describes the play as "drama, but not as we know it.

Anderson, formerly the director-in-residence of NTS, was sent to New York to collaborate on the production. Describing the play, Anderson said it's "about Reconstruction in many different ways. The way that a nation rebuilds itself, re-imagines itself, the way that one nation reconstructs others in its own image. And how individuals kind of reconstruct themselves as citizens of a nation or as kind of their personality or their political identity.

The TEAM and Anderson used a hodgepodge of stimuli in order to create the play, including historic figures, classic books and important events in America's past. Anderson, himself an accomplished writer and director, was impressed by the TEAM's overall warmth, calling the company big-hearted and describing their work as "being given a hug and made to think at the same time.

As to a play focused on American culture, Anderson believes the piece has much to offer Scottish audiences. "The kind of themes that they're exploring, in terms of the rebuilding of nations and the kind of reconstruction of ourselves and our identities is something that has a kind of appeal to lots of different places. It's a bit more universal than being just an American issue.

But Anderson insists the production isn't heavy-going, instead describing the play as "an interesting piece of work and very stimulating.

Featherstone too is adamant about how both productions are shaping up. "Both pieces really want to entertain an audience and give the audience a big theatrical experience as they are both about something which is important about where we live and how we live today.

With their themes of growth, discovery and reconstruction, both 365 and Architecting show NTS and Featherstone's continual push to be major players in world theatre. Whether either, or both, productions will prove successful remains to be seen. However, given their daring content and focus on the theatrical, it's plain to see that Featherstone and NTS are still happy to challenge theatre goers' expectations and continue to redefine and elevate Scotland's international position in the arts.