The Downfall of 7:84 Last Week, the 7:84 Theatre Company, Which Helped Give Scotland Confidence During the Moribund 1970s, Finally Lost Its Arts Council Funding. Now Facing Its Final Curtain, Torcuil Crichton Asks: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

Summary

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NOBODY can quite pinpoint the turning point in 7:84 Scotland's fortunes but the decay might have set in about the time the late John McGrath, in a story the company's founding director used to tell against himself, stopped his Volvo estate at a petrol station on northern side of Perth.

In those days, the late 1970s, the A9 was still a daunting enough journey for a driver to welcome a break, so McGrath, riding high on the success of a theatre company that broke the dramatic mould, leapt out of the car and left the petrol pump attendant to fill 'er up. On returning he noticed the teenager was eyeing the gleaming company vehicle from end to end.

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The Downfall of 7:84 Last Week, the 7:84 Theatre Company, Which Helped Give Scotland Confidence During the Moribund 1970s, Finally Lost Its Arts Council Funding. Now Facing Its Final Curtain, Torcuil Crichton Asks: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

"What does 7:84 stand for?" asked the pump attendant, referring to the window sticker. Rather than going into a long explanation of how the figure was the abbreviated name for the most ground- breaking and radical theatre company Scotland had ever seen, McGrath decided to keep it short. "It's a statistic about Britain - 7-per cent of the population owns 84-per cent of the wealth, " said McGrath. The boy looked at the car again, then disdainfully back at McGrath, and said: "No need to show it off though, is there?"

The att...

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