VERTIGO
wo cities. In otte. there's a liyely. chatty line in eonyersation from two boisterous creatiye spirits interrupting each other in hectic counterpoint. gallus ol' spirit and lull ol‘ repartee. In the other. there's a tnore measured conyersation. in which interruption is infrequent. but analysis is deep and considered. though these \oiees too are not without a sense of intelligent fun. What might surprise you is the first is in the capital. and the latter (ilasgow. ()yer two days. lour \oices speak in accents as different as \aguely estuary. a rhythmic Welsh
lilt. a clipped and slightly RP accent and broad Yorkshire. each a separate entity bttt with unilied purpose. They are the \oices ot' the Scottish National Theatre as we know it: respectiyely. artistic director Vicky l-‘eatberstone. executiye director .\'eil Murray. dramatttrg Dayid (ireig and director of new work John 'l‘it‘l‘any.
24 THE LIST ‘ ‘ ‘.'.=.'
David Grieg Vicky Featherstone
These four theatrical adyenturers. three still in their 30s and one not lar past 40. are the surprisingly youthl'ul \oice ol’ what one hopes w ill be a lurther renaissance ol a currently strong Scottish theatre.
ln lidinburgh. lieatherstone btistles out ol an airport taxi. Behind me. .lohn 'l‘il‘l'any appears from the scrimmage pouring otit ol the Lyceum. where he has been addressing an audience on ottr new national institution. He was a last minute replacement for lieatherstone. who was detained elsewhere.
I whisk the two ol them away to an anteroom in the Lyceum. where they almost talk oyet' each other abottt the new national project. l‘eatherstone and 'l‘it’l‘any haye had a creatiye partnership which goes back to college days. interrupted only by Titlany 's seyeral years at the Trayerse while Featherstone continued to build the adyenturous linglish new writing company
The key players of the National Theatre are working together on one last production before setting out to take Scottish theatre to new heights. Steve Cramer asks Vicky Featherstone and her collaborators whether PYRENEES offers any hints about the future.
Paines Plough. tor whom she is directing her last gig. l)a\ id (ireig's l’t‘n'm'r'x. at the iron.
.»\s l‘ieatherstonc sits down. I see she‘s dressed as H to meet the Queen. aptly. l‘or that‘s precisely what she's just done. This strikes tttc as odd. since [his datne doesn‘t seem the kind to look li()l' the ollicial title. so my question about what it‘s like to meet old Brenda must ltaye a suspicious. republican edge.
She answers straight and sensible. "I‘m not a royalist. I went to Manchester l'niyersity in the arts. It‘s not really my thing. I was in two minds as to whether to go at all. bttt then I realised that you take a job leading a public institution like this. and yott haye to stop asking those questions. It was phenomenal. really interesting. It was Prince Philip and the Queen and Prince Edward and Sophie. What impressed me was that they knew eyerything about it. including the date l‘d started. and they were engaged. I sat between Will