I 1993
Irvine Welsh's
work. and they totally gatecrashed the party! Spanky. Phil and Lucille just turned up and insisted the play was actually about them And that was me. stuck with them.‘
Nora .S'mtiu happens in a series of meet-ups. hook-ups. coincidence and reunions. over the course ofone day in 2002. on the lawn of the huge crumbling house where a (ill-something former slab boy turned successful painter lives with his much younger. more starry partner and their two small children. circumstances famously similar to Byrne‘s own life with his actor partner Tilda Swinton. But then The Slab Boys trilogy was always a very personal project for the playwright: he‘s never hidden the fact that the first two plays were based on his early years in the slab room of Stoddart‘s carpet factory. nor that the characters were very much inspired by real people.
‘l‘ve no facility for creating a type of person l‘rn not. or [‘11] nothing near. lt wouldnae interest me. The funny thing is that all the people who worked in Stoddarts when l was there. they‘re all going to have a reunion. on 4 May. ()ne fella has made it big in Philadelphia. is buying houses over here: Adele lone of the models for Lucillel. has been living in New York for 40 years: Jim Rafferty. who worked in the slab room with me — they‘re all getting together. and they‘re going to see the play. They did it when they were young. they came to see The Slab Buys. They so enjoyed it. None of them could see themselves in it. though. liven though the characters were plucked from that milieu. The names were. well. partially changed.
I 1996
James Kelman’s
Wdeo artist Douglas
and then embroidered on and exaggerated or added to.‘
It‘s not just an exercise in nostalgia. though. this revisiting of old characters'.’
'()h (iod. no. No. l‘rn not interested in nostalgia at all. I‘m interested in one‘s history. One only has one‘s history. and one‘s memories. but if you spend your life poring over them nostalgically. you‘re going to lose yourself.‘
Byrne‘s distrust of that sort of sentimental wallowing is what elevates Nora Smirk: from a
jolly catch-up with some old pals to. as the title
hints. a meditation on the state of the nation. ()r at the very least. the state ofthe nation‘s art. It‘s been pointed out before. but one of the things that made the Slab Boys so significant at the time was that it was set in 1957. At l‘). Phil wanted to go to art school: Spanky had dreams of being a rock‘n‘roller. Ten. l5. 2() years on. and disempowered. disenchanted working class boys with artistic ambitions — Byrne and the generation of artists. writers and musicians like him — would have changed the face of popular and high culture. in Scotland and the rest of the UK. Some time between then and now. Spanky and Phil have made it bigtgish). had their moments in the sun and faded back into irrelevance. Rather crtrelly. Nut‘u .S‘r'ntiu has them beset on all sides by a fast- talking exasperated generation of 3()-somethings who refer to them as ‘an ageing has-been‘ and ‘an incontinent. over-thc-hill tosser‘. respectively. Ten. 20 years on again. and the most significant Scottish artist of the day is Phil‘s partner. Didi Chance. whose latest conceptual video piece has
got her onto the Turner Prize shortlist. and one of
the most interesting scenes in the play charts the disintegration of their relationship through an argument about their respective generations‘ outlook. Didi denounces the rnachismo of older Scottish painters as 'that mob of feeble-minded retards from the RSA. with your “ma knob‘s biggern‘ yours“ mind set‘: Phil snaps back that Didi‘s generation 'don‘t understand mrvtlrin' — language . . . culture . . . art . . . nuance. Irony to you lot‘s like a baseball bat is to a bouncer!‘ Byrnc. even-handed. sits back and lets them both have their say. He may share certain biographical
details with Phil. but he‘s not going to let either of
them win.
‘Phil‘s not my mouthpiece.‘ says Byrne. ‘He‘s like me. but he‘s not my mouthpiece. Do you know. the play always had that title. Nora Smriu. even when it was about different characters.
‘The new Scotland — it really is a new country There‘s no point hanging onto old stuff. Hang onto what you believe in. but if you‘re gormae cling to the past. to the old life. you‘ll end tip left behind. It‘s a new century. it really is. Phil. everyone. has to accept that times have changed. liven if they cannae change with them.‘
Nova Scotia, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Fri 25 Apr-Sat 24 May.
I 2004
Ali Smith’s multi National Theatre of
Two Glasgow-
‘ONE ONLY HAS ONE'S HISTORY AND ONE'S MEMORIES’
Clockwise from top left: poster by Byrne for the original production; Byrne on right; images from the original productions of The Slab Boys, top, Cuttin’ A Rug, middle, and Still Life, bottom; Byrne’s sketches of the characters in Nova Scotia; the 1982 production of The Slab Boys
2006
Black Watch, by AL Kennedy wins
Tfainspotting dialect-written How Gordon wins the Turner award-winning Scotland (NTS) based conceptual Gregory Burke and the Costa Prize brings Late It Was, How Prize. The film version Hotel Wodd established. artists, Jim Lambie NTS, becomes one with Day. contemporary Late wins the of Trainspotting is asserts a and Simon Starling, of the most Scots dialect into Booker Prize, to assimilated into the female, lesbian shortlisted for the celebrated, mainstream great outcry in ‘Cool Britannia' voice in Turner prize. internationally- literature. London. The fimes movement and makes Scottish Starling wins. reaching Scottish
calls the book instant stars of Robert writing. theatre productions
‘Iiterary vandalism’. Macgregor.
Carler and Ewan
in history.
9-1 Apr ~8 May 2008 THE LIST 27