Spirited Voices

Spirit of '47's provocative series of talks brings together leading artists, commentators and thinkers from around the world.

Conductor Bruno Walter said that the first Edinburgh International Festival was a ‘magnificent’ experience, which ‘renewed human relations’ after the war. But not everyone felt included. For some years Glasgow Unity Theatre – led by a former factory shop steward – had been discovering working-class talent and presenting popular, professional theatre.

International Festival director Rudolf Bing thought Scottish work unlikely to meet his standards; and making the Festival accessible to a wide social range of ‘local visitors’ was not a consideration. Glasgow Unity came anyway but had to perform, self- funded, on what later became ‘the Fringe’.

This two-part event examines the origin of the ‘culture wars’, an under-appreciated part of the development of Edinburgh as a Festival City. In part one, through a combination of docu-drama and readings based on contemporary sources, we look at how the first Festival came about in 1947. This is a true story, sourced from contemporary – albeit incomplete – records, performed by Helen Mackay and Kevin Lennon, and narrated by Terry Brotherstone.

In part two, a panel including Larry Flanagan (General Secretary, Educational Institute of Scotland) and Joyce McMillan (theatre critic, National Union of Journalists), address what has changed since 1947, particularly with regard to the role that the International Festival has played, is playing, and should play, in enhancing the life-long educational experience of Scotland’s people. Chaired by International Festival Director Fergus Linehan.

Supported by Edinburgh Trades Union Council and Scottish Trade Unions.

Does the placement, presence, and input of artists need to be re-negotiated and re-imagined in the context of contemporary crises? A panel of leading artists and experts gather to explore the changing role, responsibility and challenges of witnessing and responding to modern conflict.

The panel includes British artist David Cotterrell, Argentine MINEFIELD director Lola Arias, Sri Lankan playwright Ruwanthie de Chickera and academic Michael Clarke, chaired by the BBC's Allan Little. The talk was recorded live in Edinburgh on Tuesday 8 August 2017.