Dundee Rep Ensemble

Dundee Rep’s 5-star, sell-out production of John McGrath’s The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black Black Oil is going on tour.

The highly acclaimed production tells the history and the tragedy of Scotland, performed as a Highland ceilidh, with song, humour and drama intermixed, creating a unique theatrical event, that remains as vital and relevant today as it was when 7:84 Scotland first presented it, over 40 years ago.

‘It has everything, and it throws it at you in generous handfuls; laughter, farce, drama, live song and dance, finely researched political intent.’(David Pollock, The Independent), The Cheviot is ‘rousing, raucous, polemical, plangent and fun’ (Mark Fisher, The Guardian).

This extraordinary play looks at the exploitation and economic changes in the Scottish Highlands throughout history, from the ruthless evictions of Highland crofters making way for the more economically viable Cheviot sheep in the 18th century, to the development of stag hunts in game parks in the 19th century and finally the exploitation of resources during the North Sea Oil boom of the 1970s. Written as a musical drama by John McGrath, it explores stories and experiences of Scotland’s land, sea and people across the centuries.