David Grieg and “Dunsinane” at the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh

The National Theatre of Scotland is currently touring a production of “Dunsinane” by David Greig which I saw last week at the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh. He is one of my favorite playwrights; most notably for “The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart.” His versatile style and true skill for utilizing prose, playful whimsy, song, heightened drama, humor, and inventive storytelling through audience engagement has always stuck with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got the chance to meet David Greig and speak with him about making new plays. I’ve always been fascinated by the audience experience when seeing his shows and wanted to know more about what he hopes audiences take away from his work. He responded by saying that he aims for an audience to be “swept away into the story.” It’s a simple idea at the core but chock full of much larger and complex layers. He tries to use his words to transport the audience into a space that lets one feel and connect with characters and emotional situations. He attempts to make audiences laugh, just when they are about to cry, take what we know and give it a slightly modern touch, and have enough of a political resonance to connect the story to a world that needs to hear its message. His collaborative use of devising workshops to help generate the ideas and language, for “Dunsinane” in particular, are essential to his creative process.