The Great Yes No Don't Know 5 Minute Theatre Show
June 24, 2014 8:04 AM   Subscribe

The National Theatre of Scotland is spending 24 hours staging and live streaming 185 five minute plays on the subject of independence, created by people all over Scotland and beyond, as a creative reflection on the forthcoming independence referendum.

Venues range from a primary school classroom in Annan to a forest clearing in East Timor, the theatre-makers from professionals to first-timers. Some pieces are being streamed live from stages around Scotland, others have been pre-filmed in front of a live audience and submitted.

The National Theatre of Scotland project has, sadly, also become a moving epitaph to one of the leading lights of participatory theatre in Scotland, David MacLennan. He was co-curator of the project with playwright David Greig, but died of motor neurone disease days before it was due to be staged.

One of the pieces performed live last night at Oran Mor in Glasgow was a moving letter of friendship and thanks from Greig to Maclennan.

The stream runs for one more hour, but all the pieces will be put online by the end of the week for viewers to catch up. In the meantime, you can hear David Greig discuss the project, and the strangeness of working posthumously on David MacLennan's work in this podcast.
posted by penguin pie (1 comment total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
You can now watch all of the Five Minute Theatre pieces online.

Some highlights:

The beautiful, above-mentioned Letter to David.

A Message from East Timor - an extraordinary re-enactment of the history of Scotland, filmed in a Timorese forest clearing.

A personal favourite of mine, My Shower and Me - I have no idea what it's about or what it has to do with Independence, but I'm still singing Me and My Shower. A bonkers, but catchy little number.

We're Not Sure - a very funny, awesomely Scottish dedication to The Undecided Ones (not on the official feed, I think because of rights issues).
posted by penguin pie at 6:32 AM on July 3, 2014


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