State of the Theatre Nation

While the biggest performance news of the year might have been the change from The Arts Council to Creative Scotland, with various headlines suggesting that sciences will benefit as much as the arts from the new organisation, it is still too early to see whether there will be dramatic changes.

The usual highlights came around: the National Review of Live Art befuddled and delighted; The Fringe was hectic, especially at Dance Base, which had three weeks of radical dance; New Territories got Tramway buzzing with the best international experiments. And the King's, both Glasgow and Edinburgh, kept the big tours rolling in, alongside their sister venues, the Theatre Royal and the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.

The big news in Glasgow was the emergence of The Arches as the premier space for alternative theatre. When the RSAMD moved their Into The New into its cavernous depths, it clearly signalled that new artistic director Jackie Wylie was creating a hub for young contemporary artists. The Director’s Awards went to two of the most experimental female practitioners in Scotland, Nic Green and Sacha Kyle: Green went on to storm the fringe with Trilogy, a highly ambitious and explicitly feminist marathon. Both Wylie and Green stand out as two young and dynamic forces: Wylie has programmed everything from Russian agitators Derevo, who opened up even more of her venue’s underground spaces through to Alien War, the walk-through that scared Michael Jackson’s minders.

Nic Green is a RSAMD graduate who is beginning to hit the headlines. Dividing critics, partially due to her use of nudity but also because of her loose, distinctive style, Green is currently wowing London audiences at the Barbican. Her ability to balance the tentative and the forthright gives her politicised direction a deep moral strength, as if she is exploring the possibilities of ideology while being aware of its dangers.

Over in Edinburgh, The Traverse, under Dominic Hill, is re-establishing its alternative credentials. While the Friday lunchtime sessions follow on from Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint series, it has made links with The Arches, staged a season of intense contemporary theatre and continued to seek out new Scottish authors. By welcoming David Hughes Dance as a house company, it has stood up for ongoing development and redefined its definition as the place for new writing. The November season included dance and opera and, as always, its Fringe season was close to a complete sell out.

The major companies of the nation, The National Theatre of Scotland, Scottish Ballet and Scottish Opera, have continued to blend the adventurous and the traditional. The Ballet arrived in their new home at Tramway, giving them additional space to develop new work. The Ashley Page revolution has continued: increasingly, they are looking like a strong contemporary dance group, giving Ian Spink and Richard Allston the chance to take on narrative ballets. Meanwhile, the Opera is trying to catch a younger audience, clearing out its perceived fustiness, with the 5:15 series. Although it is not a new form, these short operas involve some of the most vibrant talents in modern Scottish art.

The National Theatre, being the youngest of the big three, is searching for an identity. This can sometimes be exciting: Allotment saw the company take on site specific action in Govan and involve the locals in work by the young Turks of theatre. The more traditional productions, such as Rona Munroe’s take on Lorca, are variable and safe: worthy, and reaching out to specific sections of the audience, but not groundbreaking. The search for identity is not necessarily a problem. It means that the NTS is experimenting, aiming to cover the breadth of Scottish performance. From its education and out-reach projects, new work is spinning off and young directors are being cultivated.

In the last year, Vanishing Point have emerged as the most striking independent company. Ruling the roost at the Critics Award for Theatre Scotland 2009 through the intimate Interiors, they courted controversy through their updating of The Beggar’s Opera. Driven by Matthew Lenton’s singular vision, they reinvented this classic as a modern rock opera, attracting new audiences and engaging positively with criticism. Evolving throughout its tour, Beggar’s was a brave fusion of music and technology, seeming more at home at Tramway than the Lyceum and integrating pop influence.

David Leddy was Lenton's rival at the CATS ceremony: his excellent work at the Citizens and the Fringe saw him lead audiences back stage, around the Botanic Gardens and into a tea ceremony as he fused script and restless experimentation with sites and forms. Leddy captures a unique Scottish balance of text and performance, where both lead the other into new territories, a style that can be recognised even in the NTS' classical work.

Elsewhere, it is interesting to note how little the credit crunch has impacted on theatre. The popular lunchtime Play, Pie and Pint series has been joined by Fiendish Plots at the CCA, and many companies are still using ostentatious staging that does not suggest a cash-strapped medium. The Lyceum and the Playhouse are both healthy, and a new venue is preparing to take them on in Edinburgh.

Grassroots projects are flourishing: Flatrate staged their first production, as well as holding a monthly open stage: Strathclyde Theatre Group still fill out The Ramshorn and The Tron, under Andy Arnold, has hit its stride after a few uncertain years. Burlesque and cabaret are expanding, with the inaugural Glasgow Cabaret Festival showcasing the city’s talents and Blonde Ambition stretching the genre with A Christmas Carol and, in London, a run of Fallen Angels, a narrative cabaret under the expert command of Des O’Connor. For a more hardcore techno turn, Gamma Ray Dali is slowly building up her troupe The Freaky Brides into a dance company.

Online, Magnetic North have introduced Open Source, a site for discussion about performance: although it is early days yet, this is one forum that could energise the critical chat around theatre, something that is still in need odevelopment.

The companies that did disappear this year – including Benchtours, were more victims of funding redistribution, and the new companies that have appeared in their place express the new priorities of the sector. With a new generation of graduates hitting the stage, and having more spaces to visit, Scotland is shaping up to take a place among the European centres of excellence.