TWO theatre shows set during the Scottish independence referendum are set to be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, with each containing key messages about polarisation and young people’s voices in politics.
Action Theatre Scotland’s play Alba and PenPal Productions’ For Better, For Worse, are both set in 2014 when Scots young and old grappled with the biggest vote the country had seen since devolution.
Alba follows the story of Paul, a 16-year-old schoolboy completely disinterested in politics or his studies who is now faced with making a call over the country’s future after the independence vote was opened up to 16 and 17-year-olds.
Meanwhile, For Better, For Worse focuses on a widowed mother and her two adult children who are on split sides of the argument, with the play exploring how we can co-exist with people who have opposing views to our own.
Jill Franklin wrote For Better, For Worse in 2014 when she was studying playwriting and couldn’t think of anything else to write about, such was the all-consuming nature of the decision Scots were facing.
However, immediately after the vote which saw Scotland opt to remain part of the UK, she found people were not ready to reflect on the referendum. It was too soon, too raw.
“I had some quite disturbing reactions to it. It was a sore point for some people, so I put it away and I thought I’d probably never do anything with it,” Franklin told The National.
“But then when there was talk about another referendum last year, Jane and Mell [the other playwrights she founded PenPal Productions with] said I should dig it out again.
“So I redrafted it and they said it feels like the right time for it now because the conversation has never really gone away, but it does feel like people are more open to talking about it.”
After some rehearsed readings in front of an invited audience, Franklin says it has been a real conversation starter with people staying behind after a performance at Leith Depot relieved to be able to discuss something they had been scared to explore in the past.
Although the play is set during the referendum, Franklin and director Emma Lynne Harley say there are many other threads running through the story including how you make choices – particularly when people reject those choices – as well as how the children and their mother deal with personal grief at the same time as processing the arguments of Better Together and Yes Scotland.
Harley said: “There is such polarity around people with differing opinions right now.
“It’s a play that explores what happens when you are forced to exist with people who have very different opinions to yours, which I find interesting because it’s becoming rarer, I think, with the way we operate as a society.
“I think people often exist in a bubble, surrounded by people who think similarly to the way they do, and I remember there was something about the referendum where people voted in ways that you didn’t expect.
“I think political moments in time like this are points where you can really be surprised by the people around you and what they think.”
Franklin added: “It’s about families and how they deal with things when they don’t agree and how you make choices.
“It’s a conversation starter. I think when we had the Q and A after the reading [in Leith], almost everyone stayed and felt it was just great to be able to talk about it.
“In some places, people were a bit too scared to talk about the referendum and what happened afterwards.”
Jack Byrne and Jordan Howat have also explored the theme of decision making in Alba at a time in life when many other matters are occupying your headspace.
Howat was inspired to write songs about Scottish history and the battles of independence after watching Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton.
After meeting Byrne on the set of Good Omens II where they were both extras, the pair worked together to develop a play featuring original songs that focused on school pupils suddenly becoming part of the Scottish electorate at the same time as growing up and working out what they wanted to do with their lives.
The story largely plays out through Mrs Lindale’s history lessons where pupils learn about Scotland’s past as they attempt to work out where they stand on its future.
Howat added: “You would’ve had so many voices [about the referendum] in families and you’re in the middle thinking ‘I’m just trying to get through my exams’.
“It [the story] has become really relevant today because it was only last year we were denied that chance to make that decision ourselves again and it’s still being talked about. Our play is an unbiased approach to it and it’s not from one side or the other.”
Byrne added: “Jordan had written songs about Scottish history but we realised we needed a framing device for them, a thread to connect an audience to them and the referendum was what came to mind.
“The crux of the show is about decision making and it’s about Paul’s journey of having this massive decision thrust upon him while dealing with lots of changes in life in working-class Glasgow.
“It’s about the weight of that on his shoulders. We chart his journey from the start of the school year, when he’s not interested in politics at all, to him coming to terms with this being a decision he needs to make, whichever way he votes.
“The main message of it is that young people can make their own decisions no matter what their background is, no matter how much people tell them they cannae.
“They are just as important in society as anyone else and we want them to feel that.”
For Better, For Worse will be on at C Venue 21, Roman Eagle Lodge, Johnston Terrace. August 13-27 at 3.50pm. Tickets £9-£13, concessions £7-£11, under-18s £5-£9. Tickets can be bought here.
Alba will be on at Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, 3 Chambers Street. August 2-17 at 11.15am. Tickets £11 for adults, £10 for concessions. Tickets can be bought here.
