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| JOHN DURNIN |
Here in Pitlochry, it’s hard not to feel a little remote from Highland 2007. After all, we’re outwith the central funding region and therefore out of the information loop, while theatre doesn’t seem to feature too highly on the Highland 2007 agenda (unless, of course, you`re talking Cameron MacIntosh-backed musicals, in which case come in, sit down, will you take a wee plain biscuit with your tea?)
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Yet despite this, despite the pervading sense that the project’s political genesis - as a second-best response to the doomed City of Culture bid - has made it a generalised, promotional bolt-on, rather than a genuine celebration which has grown out of the artistic, cultural and economic life of the Highlands; despite all of this, the possibility remains that Highland 2007 might offer some benefit to organisations like ourselves.
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To a greater or lesser extent, the sustainability of building-based producers in such depopulated regions has always been dependent upon visitors from outwith the immediate area: with a population of only 11,000 in Highland Perthshire, Pitlochry Festival Theatre learned long ago to regard the population of Scotland as a whole as its natural audience constituency, with the rest of the UK thrown in for good measure.
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So Highland 2007’s most basic promotional aims – to increase visitor awareness of the cultural infrastructure of the Highlands and boost the profile of the Highlands as a visitor destination both for UK inward and overseas tourism – are ones which PFT can and will support, even if only from the perspective of purely selfish economic benefit.
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So in view of this compatibility, will we be programming projects in 2007 that will specifically reflect the themes of Highland 2007? Possibly - but not necessarily as a direct response to the Year of Highland Culture. 2007 also marks the 300th anniversary of a momentous political event: the anniversary of the signing of the Act of Union will probably prompt a year-long, media-driven public debate about Scotland`s political, social and economic future (no bad thing in itself). It is arguable, therefore, that when considering our plans for 2007, it is to the bigger picture – the question of who or what Scotland is or can be - that we should principally address ourselves.
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However, given the central issues of history, identity, purpose and destiny around which such a debate might revolve, any consideration of the role of Highland culture within contemporary Scotland would no doubt make a useful contribution to the wider discussion.
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So might Highland 2007 provide us with a way to kill two birds with one stone? Might disinterring Rob Roy, or staging the wind farm debate, or dramatising the consequences of the Clearances two centuries on provide us with a way to to contemplate Scotland's future through the prism of the Highlands’ past? I’m not sure yet. But it’s an interesting idea . . .
Artistic Director, Pitlochry Festival Theatre
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| September 2008 Editorial |
The Festivals Keep On Coming
Posted by Commissioning Editor, Kenny Mathieson, on
Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:37:00 GMT |
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