"Astonishingly generous":

	New Scottish Drama - Panel Discussion

About the reception of new Scottish plays in London, the dramatist David Greig writes that the critics there “feel most comfortable with Scottish work when it fits their understanding of Scots – violent and funny poor people who are slightly frightening. The softer voices, the poetic voices, and the experimental voices are met with bemusement, apathy or patronising disdain.”

But in 2002 surprisingly on a Guardian-list of ten playwrights thought to be “the future of British theatre”, four were Scots. The same newspaper's Edinburgh correspondent Fiachra Gibbons talks of “the most exciting generation of playwrights in a century” and names Henry Adam, Gregory Burke, David Greig and David Harrower as its main exponents.

The Traverse in Edinburgh has overtaken the Royal Court as the most important British theatre primarily dedicated to new work. The establishment of a non-building based new National Theatre for Scotland will be a further boost to an already lively scene. In a small nation of five million people 600 000 regularly go to the theatre.

Following the reading of Henry Adam's play “When the Dons Were Kings” a panel discussion will deal with the current state of Scottish theatre as well as Scottish football, the new writing policy of the Traverse and Henry Adam's work which includes two very successful plays: “Among Unbroken Hearts” (2000) and “The People Next Door” (2003). His new play “Petrol Jesus Nightmare” will receive its world première at the Traverse Theatre during this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Participants:
Henry Adam (playwright)
Katherine Mendelsohn (literary manager, Traverse Theatre)
Maja Zade (dramaturg, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz)
Michael Raab (translator and journalist)

Michael Raab received his PhD at the University of Hamburg and worked as literary manager (dramaturg) at the Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Staatstheater Mainz, the Munich Kammerspiele and the Schauspiel Leipzig. He has written books on Shakespearean productions in Germany and England, the portrayal of the entertainment industry in contemporary British drama, the director Wolfgang Engel and on English plays in the 1990s.

His main field of work is new British and Irish drama on which he has published numerous articles and essays. He taught at various universities and acting schools and translated plays by Catherine Hayes, David Hare, Kevin Elyot, Mark O'Rowe, Catherine Johnson, Lee Hall, Paul Tucker, J. B. Priestley, Kenneth Lonergan, Eugene O'Brien, Gregory Burke, Robert W. Sherwood, Melissa James Gibson, Simon Gray, Michael Frayn, Jonathan Lichtenstein and Laura Wade.

Datum: 22. Juni 2006, after the scenic reading of "When the Dons were Kings".

Ort: Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Kurfürstendamm 153, 10709 Berlin