Hi Martin, thank you so much for taking the time to chat to us today about your wonderful new play, Crown of Straw. I wondered if you could tell us a bit about the Braw Clan theatre company and your work in Scots?

Scotland has needed a dedicated Scots language theatre company since the days of Joe Corrie and the Bowhill Players in 1920s. I worked at the Citizens Theatre for over twenty years and always felt that there weren’t enough classical Scots language plays being put on Scottish stages or new ones being developed. During lockdown I had enough time to formulate a plan to do something about that. But I knew I couldn’t do it on my own.

When you start to learn your trade as a playwright one of the first things you are taught is to write about what you know. Luckily, I’ve always written in my own working-class Lanarkshire voice. I suppose I grew up speaking a hybrid of Scots and English. We are forced to do this – “Speak properly”, “Don’t talk slang”. You become bilingual organically and out of necessity. Scots has been pushed out to the margins of society by our education system. But in my opinion Scots is a darker, richer; more theatrical language than English and deserves to be nurtured and cherished.

My first attempt at writing in classical Scots came about when I was adapting Heather’s Spears novel The Flourish. It is the gothic true story of a double murder and suicide that happened in Kirkfieldbank near Lanark in 1883. I contacted Donald Smith at the Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh and asked him how I could source some authentic Clyde Valley Scots and he said I should read John McLellan’s Linmill Stories. Reading the book was a turning point in my creative journey. I went to a Catholic school, so we did no classical Scots – not even Burns. So when I read words like “ilka” for the first time it actually blew my mind. From that point on I focused on writing plays in classical Scots knowing that the existing theatre companies in Scotland wouldn’t be rushing to my door to put them on. Ma hert rule’t ma heid an A’m aw the better fir hit.

I live in Lanark and there’s so many talented theatre makers living in Clydesdale that it made sense for us to try to bring everyone together into an informal ensemble dedicated to working in Scots. That’s how Braw Clan was born.

Braw Clan is now Scotland’s only Scots Language Theatre Company and we are based in Biggar in Clydesdale. We are passionate about Clydesdale and the people who live here. We aim to tour our work to remote village halls in our area at least once a year. We also have a deep social conscience and have set community projects with people facing financial hardship and isolation at the heart of our work.

I’m the main playwright for Braw Clan and the Creative Producer for the company. I work closely with our Creative Director Clare Yuille on everything we do. It’s a great partnership and Clare’s dedication to the Scots language and her vision for the future of the company is dead exciting. The rehearsed readings of Crown of Straw are part of the Creative Scotland Extended Programme funding that we were awarded this year. It is also part of the Scottish Society of Playwrights SSP@50 project.

We’ll be developing a new Scots play with Scots Scriever Susi Briggs for pre-fives next year as part of our Unlocking Scots programme too. Making work for the next generation of snottery Scots speakers is a thrill.

Braw Clan are interested in writing new plays set in the place where we make and show the work. We feel this gives people a deeper connection to the stories, and the through the stories – the Scots language. Funded again by Creative Scotland, our new play So Long, Wee Moon goes into rehearsal in August and will be on in September in venues throughout Clydesdale. It is a play for three women set in in 1920s in a wee place near Crawfordjohn called Snar. Snar is a Scots word meaning hard, strict, tart. I was really drawn to the name as it sets the tone for the conflict between the mother and her two daughters. I’m delighted that we’ve a new production going on in Clydesdale, made in Clydesdale, and set in Clydesdale. It’s going to be great.

Why did you decide on Robert Fergusson as the subject for your next play? What was it about his story that interested you?

I was researching a play I was writing called Robert Burns Talks to God at the Dawn of his Death for James McMillan’s Cumnock Tryst Festival. That’s when I first heard about Fergusson. The fact that Burns commissioned a headstone for Fergusson’s unmarked grave stayed with me. Within a year I was hooked on Fergusson’s work and his tragic demise. Sometimes you get an idea for a play and it doesn’t fade. When that happens – you’re messing with muses if you don’t write it!

How did you go about the actual creative process of writing the play? How did you find Fergusson’s ‘voice’ and those of his family and friends?

There’s so much archive material and biographies of Fergusson out there that I was a bit daunted by the task to begin with. It was brilliant to be able to draw on the vast knowledge of Professor Rhona Brown and Dr Amy Wilcockson, and their passion for Fergusson and his work was infectious and really inspiring.

When you are writing a play about such an important person from history, you need to do your best to bring that person to life for a modern audience. Initially I was drawn to the infamous fall down the stairs and his time in Bedlam. It was when me and Clare were having a blether with Rhona that a light bulb went off in my head. Rhona was so passionate about his life – not his death. I knew then that I had to do my best to take the audience through a journey into his whole life. And his lust for life. I hope I’ve done that.

I would say that ninety percent of the play is based on the research Amy and Rhona suggested I look at. So there’s a lot of things people say in the play that are drawn directly from letters and magazines from the time. And Matthew P. McDairmid’s introduction to The Poems of Robert Fergusson was invaluable. I couldn’t have written the play without that.

I knew the play needed to show that Robert, his family and the other people in his life were real. Real people just like us with the same worries and desires as us. That they lived two hundred and fifty years ago shouldn’t be a barrier to us connecting with them on that level. I was fascinated by his relationship with his mother – so that relationship is at the heart of the play.

How does it feel seeing a text you’ve written come to life, and how has the rehearsal process been? 

I won’t know if I’ve done a good job until the audiences have seen the rehearsed readings. For a playwright the juice is in the performance. That connection with actors and audience is where the magic of theatre lies. Not on the page. A play text is just a map.

Rehearsals are going to be a pressure cooker. We’ve only got one week to bring the script to life. But everyone involved in the project is so talented and committed that I’m confident we’ll make something very special. The cast of sixteen is made up of community actors from the Corn Exchange’s Theatre Workshop, acting students from New College Lanarkshire and three professional actors. A cast that size brings its own power. Jordanna O’Neill’s direction and John Kielty’s musical direction will add so much to what we create together. Getting to work with them on the project is deeply satisfying on so many levels!

What’s your favourite moment or character within your play, and why?

I’ve a soft spot for Doctor William Wilkie, Robert’s mentor at Saint Andrew’s University. If you haven’t heard of him – check him out. He’s truly, truly nuts.

What’s next for Crown of Straw, and for Braw Clan?

What’s next for Crown of Straw is sort of out of our hands. We’d love to find a partner to take the show to full production or even to do some more rehearsed readings. I think the play does Robert justice. He’s so important. So special. So essential. The more people who get to know about him through the play, the happier we will be.

For more information about what’s next for Braw Clan see www.brawclan.com/unlocking-scots/

To get your tickets for the rehearsed readings of Crown of Straw, see https://brawclan.com/crown-of-straw/

Martin Travers is a playwright and producer whose work has been produced by NTS, Citizens Theatre, In Cahootz, Scottish Opera and Oran Mor. His plays include Whatever Happened to the Jaggy Nettles? which won Best Play For Young Audiences at the Writers’ Guild Awards in 2022. Martin helped found the multi-award-winning WAC Ensemble, Scotland’s first professionally-supported, care-experienced theatre group. He is the playwright and Creative Producer of Braw Clan.