Nicht o’ the Blunt Claymore
Full Length Scots Comedy
- First performed by New Victory Players of Glasgow, October 1974
- Winner of the SCDA Playwriting Competition
- 17 Productions in the UK
- Published by Brown, Son & Ferguson
Characters (6m 4f)
Meg: The Macleods' maidservant
Helen MacLeod: Daughter of Archibald MacLeod
Janet MacLeod: Her mother
Archibald MacLeod: Owner of the farmhouse
James Campbell: A local Magistrate
Agnes Campbell: His Wife
Reverend Graham: Minister of the local Kirk
Duncan Fraser: A Jacobite Rebel, Helen's suitor
A Stranger: (Male)
Major Davidson: An English Army Officer
The Setting: Archibald MacLeod's farmhouse on the outskirts of Bonachy, a village in Perthshire, Scotland
Period: 1746
Running Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Synopsis
May, 1746. The Macleods, a family with Jacobite sympathies, must assume the appearance of loyal Hanoverians to deceive James Campbell, a notorious rebel-hunter.
Their problems are complicated by their own daughter's reckless infatuation with the rebel cause, a whisky-still in their barn, and an assortment of unwanted guests, including Campbell and his wife, the local minister, a mysterious stranger, a fugitive rebel and a company of redcoats.
A hectic evening of conspiracy, concealment, disguise and mistaken identity ensues, culminating in an inevitable collision between the assembled protagonists.
The winning play in the 1973 S.C.D.A. Playwriting Competition.
