Robert_Kemp_(playwright)

Robert Kemp (playwright)

Robert Kemp (playwright)

Scottish playwright

Not to be confused with Robert Kemp (literary critic).

Robert Kemp (1908–1967) was a Scottish playwright. Along with Tom Fleming and Lennox Milne, he was a founder of the Edinburgh Gateway Company (1953 - 1965).[1]

He was born at Longhope in Orkney, where his father was the minister. Educated at Robert Gordon's College and the University of Aberdeen,[2] he lived in London and then in Edinburgh (in Warriston Crescent). Before turning to drama, he trained as a journalist with the Manchester Guardian. From the time he adapted Molière's L'Ecole des Femmes for the Scottish stage in 1947 he sought to promote a distinctly national drama, often employing Scots dialogue.[3] In 1948, working with Tyrone Guthrie, he staged a revival of Scotland's first Scottish play, David Lyndsay's Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis and, also in 1948, he coined the phrase “Edinburgh Festival Fringe”.[4] His son, Arnold Kemp, achieved fame as a newspaper editor.

Published work

Robert Kemp's plays include:

  • Let Wives Tak Tent (1948): a free translation into Scots of Molière's L'école des femmes inspired by the Compagnie Jouvet of Paris's production of the play at the first Edinburgh International Festival in 1947
  • The Heart is Highland (1954)
  • The Laird o' Grippy (1954): a free translation into Scots of Molière's L'avare (The Miser)
  • Off A Duck's Back (1961)
  • The Other Dear Charmer[5]
  • The Perfect Gent (1962)
  • The Asset (play)
  • Master John Knox (play) St. Andrew Press, 1960

Other plays

  • When the Star Fell (1946), a nativity play staged for Christmas at the Church of Scotland's Gateway Theatre at 41 Elm Row, Edinburgh[6]
  • The Scientific Singers / A Nest of Singing Birds (1955 / 1957)
  • Conspirators (1955)
  • Marigold (1955), a musical play, with music by Cedric Thorpe Davie
  • The Man Among the Roses (1956), a verse play based on the ballad of Tam Lin
  • The Penny Wedding (1957)
  • The Daft Days (1957), adapted from the novel by Neil Munro
  • Rob Roy (1960), adapted from the novel by Sir Walter Scott[1]

Further reading

  • Mackie, A.D., Kemp, Robert, Milne, Lennox, Fleming, Tom & Kelsall, Moultrie R. (1965), The Twelve Seasons of the Edinburgh Gateway Company, 1953 - 1965, St. Giles Press, Edinburgh
  • Findlay, Bill, "The Founding of a Modern Tradition: Robert Kemp's Scots translations of Molière at the Gateway", in Brown, Ian (ed.) (2004), Journey's Beginning: The Gateway Theatre Building and Company, 1884 - 1965, Intellect Ltd., Bristol, ISBN 978-1841501086

References

  1. [1]
    Elder, Michael (2003), What do You do During the Day?, Eldon Productions, p. 15, ISBN 9-780954-556808
  2. [2]
    Pine, L.G., ed., The Author's and Writer's Who's Who, 4th ed., 1960, p.218
  3. [3]
    Graves, Charles (1974), Men of Letters, in The Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh, 1874 - 1974, Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh, p. 58
  4. [4]
    Kemp, Robert (14 August 1948). "More that is Fresh in Drama". Edinburgh Evening News.
  5. [5]
    Keith, Thomas (28 December 2021). "Robert Burns's Life on the Stage: A Bibliography of Dramatic Works, 1842–2019". Studies in Scottish Literature. 47 (2): 69–112.
  6. [6]
    Mackie, Archibald D., "Forty-One Elm Row", in The Twelve Seasons of the Edinburgh Gateway Company, 1953 - 1965, St. Giles Press, Edinburgh, pp. 3- 6
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