Dear Scotland

To mark the momentous year that Scotland voted on independence, the National Theatre of Scotland teamed up with the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and invited audiences to join some of the country’s best known artists in writing and sharing letters to their homeland.

Dear Scotland started in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, where the audience could wander among the gallery’s cast of heroes, villains, rogues and royals and watch performances of letters inspired by 20 of the collection’s great portraits, written by 20 of the country’s leading writers and captured online on The Space.

Contributors included A L Kennedy, Liz Lochhead and Ali Smith, who wrote the letter Michael Clark, which was inspired by David Williams’ portrait of the dancer and performed by Michael Clark himself.

NTS also gave audience members a postcard beginning ‘Dear Scotland…’ and a chance to share their rants and regrets, love letters and break-up sentiments, advice and demands, hopes and dreams for their country, and send them back to the National Theatre of Scotland. It collected the responses online to create a snapshot of an extraordinary moment in Scottish history.

About this artist

Dear Scotland was commissioned by The Space and National Theatre of Scotland to mark the Independence Referendum. It was directed by Joe Douglas and Catrin Evans.

Joe Douglas is a theatre director and one of the artistic directors of Utter. His directing credits include The Last Polar Bears, Our Teacher’s A Troll, Allotment and the 2013 world tour of Black Watch (all for NTS), Bloody Trams: A Rapid Response (Traverse) and The BFG (Dundee Rep). His autobiographical play, Educating Ronnie, won a Fringe First in 2012.

Catrin Evans is a Glasgow-based director and playwright and the artistic director of A Moment’s Peace theatre company. She co-wrote and co-directed Leaving Planet Earth as part of the 2013 Edinburgh International Festival. Other directing credits include: Some Other Mother (Tron), Sweet Silver Song of the Lark (A Play, A Pie and A Pint), Fragile (Theatre Uncut) and Could You Please Look Into The Camera (A Play, A Pie and A Pint /National Theatre of Scotland).