The actor and director Matthew Zajac is extemporising a history of theatre in the Highlands and islands. He begins in the 1970s when he was growing up and remembers a short-lived theatre-in-education company run by the newly opened Eden Court Theatre in Inverness. He mentions Fir Chlis, the first professional Gaelic repertory company, that lasted from 1978 until 1981, and would pave the way for Drama na h-Alba, Tosg and Theatre Gu Leòr. And then there was the alternative arts festival he and his friends set up in Inverness in the 1980s. [READ MORE]
By Mark Fisher
MARK FISHER is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre in Scotland since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to the Scotsman and other publications. He is the co-editor of the play anthology Made in Scotland (1995), and the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide (2012) and How to Write About Theatre (2015) – all Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. He is also the editor of The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book (both Mark Fisher Ltd).