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Hector MacMillan Technician     Playwright     Luthier Honorary President: Scottish Society of Playwrights

Honorary Fellow: Association For Scottish Literary Studies

“If we investigate only by physical and chemical means, we can only get physical and chemical answers.”

Sir Alister Hardy, FRS

The Unco Guid


Written on spec. The Radio script [1985] of Le Misanthrope, translated/adapted into rhyming-couplet Scots, is the basis of this new stage play.


Almost unique among Moliére’s major plays, relying as it does on entirely verbal effects, it can seem over-wordy for contemporary theatre audiences. The experiment of actually adding musical interludes seemed worth considering. The music chosen, all by the 18th century composer James Oswald, is delightfully light classical in feel and usually with a recognisably Scot root.


Ideally, The Unco Guid would be treated as a form of folk-dance-opera. The Bal Masqué setting, however, allows production with a small cast, miming to recorded music if required.


As in most of Moliére’s plays, the subject matter continues to have contemporary resonance.


Final draft, completed in 2009, awaits a premiere.

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