Scottish National Players

Scottish National Players, company which made its first appearance in Jan. 1921 in a Glasgow hall under the auspices of the St Andrew Society of Glasgow, presenting three new Scottish one-act plays. By the end of that year a further five one-act plays and two full-length ones had been produced. The company, which became independent in 1922, was wound up in 1934, two years after a proposal to turn professional had been rejected; but the Players continued independently, their last production (after a war-time interruption) being in 1947. A notable feature of their work was the summer camping tours, which brought drama to relatively remote parts of the country. Although the movement did not succeed in its aim of creating a Scottish National Theatre similar to the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, it did call into being a body of plays which sought to reflect the variety of Scottish life, with the emphasis on the rural rather than the urban scene; among the 30 or so authors who wrote for the company were James Bridie and Robert Kemp. During the years 1921–31 the Players produced 62 new plays, their director in 1926 and 1927 being Tyrone Guthrie.