Scotland has enjoyed a late and significant flowering of theatre since the late 1960s. This project explores what I believe to have been a Renaissance that has occurred in Scottish theatre since 1969 and tests my thesis that at the core of this revival lie profound connections to the related concepts of Europeanness and Modernism. The work combines a considerable quantity of new material, generated through exclusive interviews conducted with major players in this Renaissance (both theatre directors and dramatists), with my own analyses and interaction with the existing critical and academic literature. The thesis begins with a Preface addressing various facets of European Modernism and their relations to the development of Scottish theatre since the late Sixties. Chapter 1 of the work offers a detailed consideration of the role played in Scottish theatre's revival by Giles Havergal's thirty-four year reign as artistic director at Glasgow's Citizens Theatre, and explores the manner in which Havergal's work was, or was not, taken forward by his successors Jeremy Raison (2003-2010) and Dominic Hill (2010 to the present).Moving on from the establishing of a European Modernist aesthetic at the Citizens in the 1970s, the thesis contends (in Chapter 2) that this aesthetic was disseminated more widely in Scottish theatre in the 1980s, and that the driving force in that dissemination was Communicado theatre company. Chapter 3 addresses the emergence of a generation of Scottish theatremakers in the 1990s whose work, arguably, represents the clearest and strongest reflection of European Modernist aesthetics in new theatre produced in Scotland. This chapter comprises interviews (in question and answer format) with the five artists who I consider to be the leading figures in the "golden generation" of the Nineties, followed by analyses of the interviews. The interviewees are writers David Greig, Zinnie Harris, David Harrower and Anthony Neilson, and the auteur director/designer Stewart Laing. Finally, in Chapter 4 and the Conclusion, the thesis considers the way in which the National Theatre of Scotland (established in 2006) has mapped onto and contributed towards the European Modernist strand in Scottish Theatre. This is followed by an analysis of the possible future for this tradition in live drama in Scotland.

En tant qu’espace public, la scène théâtrale est le lieu de la construction et de la déconstruction de représentations de la nation, dans un dialogue incessant entre art et politique. En Écosse, la tension qui fragilise l’idée même de nation est exacerbée par le contexte géopolitique récent (référendum de dévolution en 1979, 1997 et référendum d’indépendance en 2014, puis Brexit en 2016). Miroir de cette instabilité, la scène écossaise réinvente ainsi son rapport à l’espace national en jouant sur les représentations spatiales et communautaires à différentes échelles, du local au global. Espaces et lieux, constamment problématisés, se changent en objets de représentations qui interrogent les multiples façons de faire, de montrer et de voir le théâtre. Ainsi, dans sa pratique comme dans son idéologie, le National Theatre of Scotland (NTS 2006) réinvente la nation : théâtre national sans espace physique de représentation, sans scène nationale, le NTS investit tous types d’espaces réels ou virtuels, qui donnent à repenser la présence et l’absence du corps en scène et font advenir de nouvelles communautés de « spect-acteurs » hors-frontières. Ce théâtre sans murs est métonymique de cette ouverture radicale du théâtre écossais, qui fait place à une représentation identitaire postnationale et horizontale. La scène écossaise offre donc un paradigme fécond pour rendre compte du renouvellement d’une pensée de la nation et des formes dramatiques contemporaines qui en émanent. / As a public space, the theatrical stage is where representations of the nation are constructed and deconstructed, in an unceasing dialogue between art and politics. In Scotland, the tension that destabilizes the very idea of nationhood is exacerbated by the recent geo-political context (the referenda on devolution in 1979, 1997, the referendum on independence in 2014, and Brexit in 2016). Reflecting this instability, the Scottish stage similarly reinvents its relationship to the national space by playing with the very scales of space and community, from the local to the global. Space and place, constantly challenged on the stage, become objects of representation that question the multiple ways of doing, showing, and seeing theatre. Both in its projects and its ideology, the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS 2006) seeks to reinvent the nation. As a building-less national theatre, the NTS reinvests all types of spaces, be they real or virtual, asking us to rethink the presence and absence of the body on stage, and fostering new transnational communities of “spect-actors”. This theatre without walls is a metonymy for the radical opening up of Scottish theatre itself, which invites postnational and horizontal representations of identity. The Scottish stage thus presents us with a productive paradigm to explore new understandings of the nation and the contemporary dramatic forms it fosters.