Robert McLellan

For the Australian footballer, see Bob McLellan.

Robert McLellan
Born	Robert McLellan (1907-01-28)28 January 1907 Linmill Farm, Kirkfieldbank, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Died	27 January 1985(1985-01-27) (aged 77) High Corrie, Isle of Arran, Scotland
Occupation	playwright writer poet elected representative (Arran District Council)
Language	Scots and English
Nationality	Scottish
Alma mater	University of Glasgow (1925-1928)
Genre	comic drama verse drama poetry radio drama short fiction non-fiction
Subject	Scottish character Scottish history notable historical figures Scotland's languages enlightenment era Edinburgh childhood experience island community life
Literary movement	Scottish renaissance
Notable works	Toom Byres (1936) Jamie the Saxt (1937) The Carlin Moth (1935) The Flouers o Edinburgh (1948) Sweet Largie Bay (1956) Linmill Stories (composed 1939-65, collected 1990)
Notable awards	Arts Council of Great Britain Poetry Award Civil list pension for services to Scottish literature OBE
Spouse	Kathleen Heys
Relatives	Elizabeth McLellan, née Hannah (d.1928), mother John McLellan (d.1962), founder of the Allander Press, father Sadie McLellan, married surname, Pritchard (b.1914), stained glass artist, sister

Robert McLellan OBE (1907–1985) was a Scottish dramatist, poet and writer of the Linmill Stories, working principally in the Scots language. His plays were generally popular comedies with exceptionally well-realised historical settings, including most notably Toom Byres, Jamie the Saxt, Torwatletie, The Flouers o Edinburgh and The Hypocrite. He also wrote works of dramatic verse such as The Carlin Moth. His Linmill cycle of short stories, collected posthumously in 1990, are counted with Lorimer’s Bible as being among some of the most important Twentieth Century prose in Scots.

McLellan was born in Lanarkshire, grew up in Milngavie and attended the University of Glasgow in the 1920s. He had begun to write drama in Glasgow by the early 1930s and most of his plays in this prolific early period were first produced by the Curtain Theatre. After marriage in 1938, he moved to the Island of Arran. During World War Two McLellan served with the Royal Artillery mainly in coastal defence on postings outwith Scotland, including the Faeroe Islands. On return to Scotland in 1946 he resumed his career as a full-time playwright with hopes of a transformed culture for Scottish drama spearheaded by the likes of James Bridie’s newly founded Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. But after his rupture with Bridie in the late 1948, McLellan grew increasing dissatisfied with a Scottish theatrical culture which showed insufficient understanding of Scottish subjects and language. During the 1950s he turned increasingly to the medium of radio, finding greater sympathy for his aims with the Scottish BBC drama producer James Crampsie. By the 1960s his works began to break into Scottish television while a number of his stage plays, particularly Flouers o Edinburgh, were a staple part of a popular Scottish repertoire.

McLellan was elected as an Arran District Councillor in May 1955. He also served nationally as President for the Scottish Association of District Councils (1962-4) during his tenure. He stepped down from local politics in 1965, although he continued to write. His final stage plays were Young Auchinleck (1962) and The Hypocrite (1966). In later life he turned more to non-fiction on the subject of his adopted home of Arran, and in 1971 published a full-length non-fiction account of the island's geography, history and people. Despite McLellan's importance to Scottish drama, his reputation since his death has tended to rest more on his short stories. After an abortive attempt in 1981 to collect his drama, a comprehensive edition of his principal stage plays was finally published in 2014.

Early life and education

McLellan was born in 1907 at Linmill, a fruit farm in Kirkfieldbank in the Clyde valley, the home of his maternal grandparents. He grew up in Milngavie where his father, John McLellan, in c.1912 founded and ran the Allander Press. McLellan was educated at Bearsden Academy in Glasgow before studying philosophy at the University of Glasgow, although he did not complete his degree due to ill-health. He met his future wife, Kathleen Heys while climbing in the Lake District. They were married in 1938 and settled in Arran where they lived modestly on his income as a playwright.

First plays

McLellan dedicated himself to writing in Scots, the living language of the communities he grew up in. As he himself said in an article written for Scottish Field in 1956: "When I found that what I wanted most to do in life was to write for a Scottish Theatre I knew that I should always be poor, but I consoled myself with the thought that I could at least live where I liked." Drama in Scotland was undergoing a resurgence in the early twentieth century, led initially by the short-lived Glasgow Repertory Theatre and Scottish National Players.

Most of McLellan's early work was first premiered by Curtain Theatre in Glasgow, and other respected amateur companies such as Dumbarton People's Theatre. His first play was the one act comedy, Jeddart Justice (Curtain, January 1933) set in the feuding Border country of the sixteenth century. (Jeddart Justice is condemnation without a hearing.) This was followed by Toom Byres (Empty Cowsheds) in 1936. His masterpiece, Jamie the Saxt, was first performed by Curtain at the Glasgow Lyric in 1937, making Duncan Macrae, who played Jamie, one of Scotland’s most celebrated actors, an overnight star. It was revived by the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow in 1947 and by the Scottish Theatre Company on Scottish tour in 1982, and received its English premiere in 2007 at the Finborough Theatre.

War service and post-war works

He saw wartime service in the Royal Artillery from 1940–1946 and after the war, returned to exciting new possibilities for Scottish drama. Glasgow Unity Theatre was formed in 1941 and the Citizens Theatre in 1943. His work was enthusiastically embraced by both. Glasgow Unity Theatre in 1946 saw the first performance of Torwatletie. In The Flouers o Edinburgh (1948), he explicitly and hilariously explored the sociolinguistic tension between Scots and English in Scotland, but his satirical treatment was rooted in a deep love for the language of Lowland Scotland. His belief in Scots as medium for Scottish drama, and the vigour, lyricism and humour that he found in it, did much to extend the literary range of a language whose registers had been eroded since the Union of the Crowns. But in spite of his prolific output, he did not receive the acclaim he deserved because writing in Scots has in the past been perceived, however unjustly, as a barrier to widespread and frequent productions.

Few dramatists have matched Robert McLellan’s skill at deploying the vigorous vocabulary of Scotland and his language is the beautifully lyrical, witty and intelligent Scots of his time. As a younger Scots playwright, Donald Campbell, said: "Robert McLellan wasn’t just a playwright, he was something else – something different, something special. He was a superb lyric poet who happened to have the additional gift of a theatrical imagination".

In addition to plays, McLellan also wrote five radio plays, The Linmill Stories, two poetic works – The Arran Burn and Sweet Largie Bay which was awarded The Scottish Arts Council’s Poetry Prize in 1956, and a history of the Isle of Arran published in 1969.

Robert McLellan played an active part in the community as a member of Arran District Council and as a president of the District Councils Association of Scotland. He also worked in the interests of his fellow writers as chair of the Scottish Sub-Committee of the League of Dramatists, chair of the Scottish Sub-Committee of the Society of Authors, Honorary Vice Preses (sic) of the Lallans Society and Honorary Vice President of the Scottish Society of Playwrights.

He was awarded a Civil List Pension in 1968 for "services to literature in Scotland" and received the Order of the British Empire in 1978.

He died in 1985 and is buried on the Isle of Arran.

Works by Robert McLellan

In the case of plays, theatre or company names in brackets refer to the first production

• 1934 - Jeddart Justice (A Border Comedy in One Act), one-act play in Scots set in the Scottish Borders (Curtain Theatre, Glasgow)
• 1934 - Tarfessock (A Tragedy in Three Acts), set in the Kilsyth Hills; a play which McLellan subsequently rejected (Curtain Theatre, Glasgow)
• 1934 - Flight of Graidhne (A Celtic Folk-tale in One Act), drama set in 3rd century Ireland at Tara (first production details not traced)
• 1935 - The Changeling (A Border Comedy in One Act), one-act comedy in Scots (Clydebank Little Theatre)
• 1935 - Cian and Ethlin (A Play in Five Scenes), 'Druid allegory' in English (Curtain Theatre, Glasgow)
• 1936 - Toom Byres (A Comedy of the Scottish Borders), three-act play in Scots (Curtain Theatre, Glasgow)
• 1937 - Jamie the Saxt (or English Siller, A Historical Comedy in Four Acts), historical drama in Scots set in the Edinburgh of James VI (Curtain Theatre, Glasgow, with Duncan Macrae in the title role)
• c.1937/8 - brief residence as screenwriter in England
• 1939 - Portrait of an Artist, contemporary drama of bohemian life set in Glasgow (Curtain Theatre, Glasgow)
• 1939 - begins writing what will become the Linmill Stories
• 1939 - The Smuggler (A Folk Play in One Act), comedy in Scots set on Arran (Whiting Bay Drama Club)
• c.1943 - begins writing verse during active service in World War Two
• 1944 - Perrie Becomes Captain, short story, broadcast on BBC radio
• 1946 - Torwatletie (or The Apothecary, A Comedy in Three Acts), originally completed in 1940 under the title The Bogle; comedy in Scots set on the Scottish Solway Coast (Unity Players at the Queen's Theatre, Glasgow; subsequent tour to London)
• 1946 - The Carlin Moth (An Island Fairy Tale in Four Scenes), verse drama in Scots originally written for stage, but first produced on radio (Scottish Home Service)
• c.1946 - The Cailleach (A Tragedy in One Act), drama in Scots set on Arran under the Cromwellian occupation (first production details uncertain)
• 1948 - The Flouers o Edinburgh (A Comedy of the Eighteenth Century in Three Acts), comedy in Scots set in post-Jacobite Edinburgh (Unity Players at the Kings Theatre, Edinburgh, as part of a 'Fringe' event to the second Edinburgh International Festival; later produced on BBC radio)
• 1950 - Mary Stewart (A Historical Drama in Five Acts), political drama in Scots (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, with Lennox Milne in the title role)
• 1950 - An Tàcharan and A’ Chailleach, translations of The Changeling and The Cailleach into Scottish Gaelic
• 1954 - The Road to the Isles (A Modern Comedy in Three Acts), comic drama set in the contemporary Scottish Highlands (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow; cast included actors Roddy MacMillan and Fulton Mackay)
• 1954 - As Ithers See Us, documentary drama for radio about James Currie, first biographer of Robert Burns (Scottish Home Service, produced by James Crampsey)
• 1954 - This is My Country, first in a number of series of historical dramatisations for schools radio which McLellan wrote throughout the 1950s (Scottish Home Service)
• 1956 - Sweet Largie Bay (A Dramatic Poem), verse drama in Scots for radio, set in contemporary Arran, awarded the 1956 Arts Council of Great Britain Award for Poetry (Scottish Home Service)
• 1959 - Rab Mossgiel (A Play in Three Acts), biographical drama in Scots commissioned by the BBC for the Burns bicentenary; first broadcast on radio (Scottish Home Service) and adapted for television later in the same year
• 1959 - Kirstan and the Vikar, drama in Scots set on a fictional island under German occupation in World War Two (completed in stage and radio versions but not produced)
• 1960 - Kilellan, draft television sit-com set in contemporary Arran proposed for the new STV company in Glasgow (episodes completed but not ultimately produced)
• 1960 - first series of Linmill Stories broadcast on radio (Scottish Home Service)
• 1962 - Balloon Tytler biographical radio drama in Scots about Scottish polymath James Tytler (Scottish Home Service, produced by James Crampsey)
• 1962 - Young Auchinleck (A Comedy in Three Acts), biographical drama of the young James Boswell, produced for the Edinburgh International Festival (Gateway Theatre, Edinburgh)
• 1964 - Pageant for the Burgh of Kirkintilloch, commissioned community production dramatising the history of the Burgh of Kirkintilloch
• 1964 - Waverley Gallery, series of stories from Scott dramatised for radio (Scottish Home Service)
• 1964 - A Cure for the Colonel, episode for Dr Finlay’s Casebook, completed but not produced
• 1965 - Television adaptation of Young Auchinleck (BBC Television)
• 1965 - Mum and Sally, contemporary drama for television, completed but not produced
• 1965 - The Old Byre at Clashmore, drama for radio set in the Scottish Highlands (Scottish Home Service, produced by Stewart Conn)
• 1965 - Arran Burn (A Poem for Television), BBC commision, read by Iain Cuthbertson, (BBC Television)
• 1967 - Progress to Extinction, drafts for a television documentary on island depopulation
• 1967 - The Hypocrite, historical drama (Edinburgh Lyceum; cast included actors Walter Carr, Leonard Maguire, Tom Conti, Richard Wilson)
• 1970 - My Dear Dear Sister, unproduced draft play about William and Dorothy Wordsworth
• 1970 - The Isle of Arran (non-fiction), full-length historical and geographical survey of the Isle of Arran
• 1972 - A Pageant of Dumbarton, community production adapted from 1970 commission
• 1977 - The Ancient Monuments of Arran (non-fiction), HMSO guide book
• 1978 - The Daftie, film version of the story of the same name from the Linmill cycle (BBC Television)
• 1979 - The Donegals film version of the story of the same name from the Linmill cycle (BBC Television)

Posthumous publications

• 1990 - Linmill Stories, McLellan's short-story cycle in Scots collected in print for the first time
• 2014 - Playing Scotland’s Story: Collected Dramatic Works, McLellan's principal plays collected in print for the first time

References

• David Hutchison, The Modern Scottish Theatre, 1976.
• Joy Hendry (ed), Chapman, double issue 43-4, 'Scottish Theatre Today', 1986.
• Colin Donati (ed), Robert McLellan, Playing Scotland's Story: Collected Dramatic Works, 2013.

External links

• Information on the 2007 Finborough Theatre production of Jamie the Saxt