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references to “shitey Scotland” capture a growing
scepticism about modern manifestations of nationalism.
Looking at life through schemie windows,
with 20 storey vision, Welsh sees the world with a
colder eye than the old Scottish school of radicals,
and he manages to be dispassionate, even as his
characters burn with a fierce indignation. Prolific
and provocative, Irvine Welsh has left his imprint on
the Postmodern Scottish psyche. He has been called
“the poet laureate of the chemical generation”, but
Welsh’s appeal is much wider than the popular youth
culture he so eloquently represents.
As the margins fold back to infringe on the metropolis,
it is appropriate that a new play by Irvine Welsh is
BUY Irvine Welsh books online from and
opening in Leeds. Mercurial and mobile, Scottish theatre
cannot be reduced to a single company or venue, nor
should it be categorised as a movement. Movements,
like parties and trade unions, may have had their day,
not to mention their hole. Instead, we should imagine
something more akin to a carnival – vibrant, vivid and
vigorous, the stuff of life and the stuff of theatre. Why
have a slice when you can have the whole cake, and a
language sandwich to boot? It’s high time you had your
high tea. You’ll have had your theatre.
Dr Willy Maley is a lecturer at the University of Glasgow’s
Department of English Literature. This essay
first appeared in the programme notes to the original
production of You’ll Have Had Your Hole. �
544
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