David MacLennan lost his short battle with Motor Neurone Disease last month.

Co-founder of 7:84 Theatre Company and Wildcat Productions, MacLennan was one of the founders of Glasgow’s MayFest and creator of the hugely popular “play, pie and a pint” format. He was in a new ascendancy with the National Theatre of Scotland (NToS), who commissioned him and David Greig to co-curate The Yes, No, Don’t Know, Show as a contribution to the independence debate in Scotland.

His death leaves a huge hole at the centre of Scottish theatre, particularly in its political and popular strands. 

I first came across MacLennan when Nalgo, one of Unison’s predecessor unions, made its first breakthrough in jointly working with the political theatre movement. They reunited 7:84 Theatre company co-founders John McGrath and MacLennan, by commissioning their production On The Pigs Back in 1983. It was a street theatre production of typical 7:84/Wildcat wit and political polemic that toured all across Scotland in a bus that doubled as the backdrop.

This sparked a raft of similar union-supported productions from both Wildcat and 7:84 dealing with the politics of the Thatcher years, including Bed Pan Alley sponsored by Nupe and the Nalgo-backed production of The Steamie which opened at a disused public washhouse in Govan. 

These initiatives also led to the establishment of MayFest in 1985, an arts festival based on trade union May Day celebrations. Typically, MacLennan and his then wife Ferelith Lean were in at the start of this too.

MacLennan’s political line in Wildact productions was uncompromising, if extremely humorous. The company produced plays on the miners’ strike, Ireland and rock and roll but after a falling-out with the then Scottish Arts Council, funding was withdrawn. Despite a lengthy campaign, it was the end for Wildcat. MayFest, too, shut after a different funder withdrew support.

Undaunted, after some years MacLennan launched another innovative and popular initiative. Entrepreneur Colin Beattie’s new Glasgow bar and venue Oran Mor was looking for artistic projects to fill its cavernous spaces and A Play, A Pie And A Pint was born. 

The format, allowing people to leave work, have a drink and a bite to eat and see a short play, all in the space of a lunch hour, quickly established itself in a completely commercial environment. Spin-offs to other venues ands art forms showed its versatility and ultimately the idea of short, popular plays in non-standard venues was taken up by the NToS itself in various initiatives.

Although now successful commercially, MacLennan’s political commitment was maintained right till the end. He addressed one of the first Morning Star cultural events in Scotland shortly after the success of A Play, A Pie And A Pint and introduced himself as a “convinced Marxist.” His final project involved a series of five-minute plays, all dealing with the current referendum on Scottish independence, his “no” view counterbalanced by David Greig’s “yes” position.

Political but not didactic, MacLennan knew that the imperative to entertain was an integral part of a successful production — “a good night out,” to borrow his brother-in-law McGrath’s phrase, had to be on offer if the political connection were to be made.

His vision and the ability to sense a successful theatre idea, kept with him from 7:84 Scotland’s magnificent first production The Cheviot, The Stag And The Black, Black Oil through to his other joint collaborations with Dave Anderson in Wildcat, right up to A Play, Pie And A Pint, whose format has been copied all over the world — would his political ideas had a similar global reach.

David’s loss is keenly felt by the Scottish theatre community, the many colleagues who worked with him and the close friends he had but the biggest loss will be to his wife Juliet and their son Shane. Our sympathies go out to them.

Chris Bartter