Top writer plans epic play on 2014 indyref

Loading article content

Graham revealed the move ahead of the first performance in Scotland this spring of his award-winning play This House which charts the hung parliament between 1974 and 1979 when the minority Labour Government depended on SNP MPs and other smaller parties at Westminster to keep it in power.

Speaking about it, Graham said he understood why the SNP controversially helped bring down that Government in a vote of confidence in 1979.

"That's where the Tartan Tories jibe came from," Graham said of the criticism the SNP's MPs faced after they triggered an election that saw Margaret Thatcher come to power. .

The Labour and Tory whips are the central characters in This House, which has played to critical acclaim at the National Theatre in London.

It focuses on the rivalry and friendship between the Labour deputy chief whip Walter Harrison and his Tory opposite number Bernard Weatherill, as the ruling party holds onto power by a thread.

It portrays famous Scottish politicians such as independence campaigner Jim Sillars, who was the Labour MP for South Ayrshire during the 1974-79 parliament. The late Tam Dalyell, who was then the Labour MP for West Lothian, is also depicted in the play, which is at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre from March 27-31.

Graham said his play on the independence referendum would take a similar approach, which models the theatre stage on the House of Commons chamber. His play about independence would use stage sets based on the Scottish Parliament and the SNP HQ in Edinburgh.

The playwright said it would feature a fictionalised account of David Cameron being grilled in remote Scottish villages at the height of the campaign.

Graham said that it would climax with UK party leaders so fearful about losing the union that they come to Scotland to offer “the deal” on new powers in the dying throes of the campaign.

He said: "It's an incredibly dramatic story. But it was just the beginning of a story that's still playing out. It's one that makes naturally good drama.

"What happened was so climatic and I remember the images of the greatest politicians in the UK all preoccupied with the independence referendum. The play would have a Shakespearean state of mind with them summoned to Scotland to try to save the union.".

He had previously planned to write a play about independence soon after the referendum, he said, but had been commissioned to do other work.

Graham has family in Montrose and had his first play, Coal Not Dole, about the 1984-85 miners' strike in his native Nottinghamshire performed at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in 2002.

The production of This House is at Edinburgh Festival Theatre from March 27-31, as part of a UK-wide tour.