7:84 was a Scottish left-wing agitprop theatre group. The name comes from a statistic on distribution of wealth in the United Kingdom, published in The Economist in 1966, that 7% of the population of the UK owned 84% of the country's wealth.
The group was founded by playwright John McGrath, his wife Elizabeth MacLennan and her brother David MacLennan in 1971, and operated throughout Great Britain.[1] In 1973, it split into 7:84 (England) and 7:84 (Scotland). The English group folded in 1984, having lost its grant from the Arts Council of Great Britain.[2] Jo Beddoe joined the Scottish group as producer in 1988 until 1992;[3] however, it lost its funding from the Scottish Arts Council in 2006, though Artistic Director Lorenzo Mele successfully secured funding for a further year from April 2007.[4] He subsequently commissioned a series of four plays, Wound by Nicola McCartney, Eclipse by Haresh Sharma, A Time To Go by Selma Dimitrijevic, and Doch-An-Doris (A Parting Drink) by Linda McLean. Together, these short plays formed Re:Union, a production which toured Scotland in early 2007. This was followed in September 2007 by Raman Mundair's The Algebra of Freedom, which also toured extensively throughout Scotland. This production was directed by 7:84's Associate Director, Jo Ronan, and designed by David Sneddon.
On 31 December 2008, the Scottish company ceased operating, citing "the changing funding structures in Scottish theatre."[5]
Although much of its work centres on outreach projects throughout Scotland, 7:84 was principally known for its touring productions. The following table contains details of all 7:84's major productions that toured nationally.
| Show | Director | Writer | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Algebra of Freedom | Jo Ronan | Raman Mundair | 5 September – 6 October 2007 | |
| Re:Union | Lorenzo Mele & Jo Ronan | Selma Dimitrijevic, Nicola McCartney, Linda McLean & Haresh Sharma | 11 April – 5 May 2007 | |
| Free-Fall | Lorenzo Mele | Christopher Deans | 16 February – 8 April 2006 | |
| Borderland | Andrew Doyle | 22 September – 5 November 2005 | ||
| Tipping Point | Davey Anderson | 6 June – 3 July 2005 | ||
| Boiling a Frog | Christopher Deans (based on the novel by Christopher Brookmyre) | 3 February – 2 April 2005 | ||
| Private Agenda | N/A | 2 September – 23 October 2004 | ||
| Reasons to be Cheerful | Stuart Davids | Martin McCardie | 19 February – 10 April 2004 | |
| Gilt | Stephen Greenhorn, Rona Munro & Isabel Wright | 2 October – 9 November 2003 | ||
| " | Can't Pay? Won't Pay! | 6 February – 22 March 2003 | ||
| Factory Girls | Guy Hollands | Frank McGuinness | 3 October – 9 November 2002 | |
| Cave Dwellers | Gordon Laird | Nicola McCartney | 14 February – 23 March 2002 | |
| The News at When...? | N/A | 23 November – 22 December 2001 | ||
| Marching On | 29 March – 12 April 2001 | |||
| A Little Rain | Peter Arnott | 22 September – 5 November 2005 | ||
| 24 Hours | Iain Reekie | Frances Corr, Deirdre Heddon, Jess Kerr, Ernie Kyle, Frank Shields, Rhiannon Tise | 16 March – 22 April 2000 | |
| Caledonia Dreaming | 6 June – 19 July 1999 and later revived at the 1999 Edinburgh Festival | |||
| Dissent | 5 November – 6 December 1998 | |||
| Valley Song | Natalie Wilson | 19 May – 14 June 1998 | ||
| Tongues | Andrew Dawson, John Heraghty, Natalie Wilson | 11–28 February 1997 | ||
| Angels in America | Iain Reekie | 29 March – May 1996 | ||
| Born Guilty | Peter Sirchrovsky | 27 April – 18 June 1995 | ||
| The Salt Wound | Jim Culleton | 21 September – 5 November 1994 | ||
| The Grapes of Wrath | Iain Reekie | 25 February – 1 March 1994 | ||
| Twilight Shift | 6 October – 7 November 1993 | |||
| Phoenix | Roy MacGregor | 11 May – 20 June 1993 | ||
| Sophocles' Antigone | Dan Taylor | 23 February – 27 March 1993 | ||
| The Lament for Arthur Cleary | 14 October – 21 November 1992 | |||
| Scotland Matters | 12 May – 6 June 1992 | |||
| Jump the Life to Come | 6 February – 15 March 1992 | |||
| The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui | Roanna Benn | Ralf Manheim / Bertolt Brecht | 4 October – 4 November 1991 | |
| Revolting Peasants | Gerard Kelly | Patricia Prior | 14 May – 15 June 1991 | |
| Bold Girls | Lynne Parker | 27 September – 17 November 1990 | ||
| Govan Stories | Roanna Benn | 2–25 May 1990 | ||
| When The Wind Blows | 25 August – 7 October 1989 | |||
| Road | 8 May – 3 June 1989 | |||
| The Sash | Gerard Kelly | Hector MacMillan | 24 January – 25 April 1989[6] [7] | |
| Long Story Short | Finlay Welsh | Donald Campbell, James Graham, Tom Leonard, Aonghas Macneacoil, Ann Marie Di Mambro, Gureet Mattu, Rona Munro, Ricky Ross and Ann Samuel | 28 February – 31 March 1989 | |
| No Mean City | Alex Norton | David Hayman | 24 May – 16 July 1988 | |
| Mairi Mhor - The Woman from Skye | John McGrath | 2 September – 17 October 1987 | ||
| The Gorbals Story | David Hayman | Robert McLeish | 6 May – 20 June 1987 | |
| There is a Happy Land | 25 April – 7 June 1986 | |||
| Beneath One Banner | David Maclennan | Sean McCarthy | 13 February – 5 April 1986 | |
| The Incredible Brechin Beetle Bug | John Haswell | 3 December – 16 January 1986 | ||
| High Places | Ena Lamont Stewart | 13 March – 16 May 1985 | ||
| The Albannach | Finlay Welsh | 28 February – 26 April 1985 | ||
| In Time of Strife | David Hayman | Joe Corrie | 7 May – 15 June 1984 | |
| The Baby and the Bathwater | John Haswell | 19 October – 8 December 1984 | ||
| The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists | David Hayman | 8 May – 9 June 1984 | ||
| The Clydebuilt Season | 10 February – 15 May 1982 | |||
| Gold in his Boots | George Munro | |||
| Johnny Noble | David Scase | |||
| Men Should Weep | ||||
| One Big Blow | John Burrows | John Burrows | 1981 | |
| The Catch | John McGrath | John McGrath | 15 August – 7 November 1981 | |
| Blood Red Roses | 18 August – 8 November 1980 | |||
| Swings and Roundabouts | 26 February - 22 March 1980 | |||
| Joe's Drum | Campbell Morrison | 21 May – 22 June 1979 | ||
| Thought for Today | David Maclennan | Company collaboration | 10 February – 16 March 1977 | |
| Honour Your Partners | David Maclennan | 27 January – 10 April 1976 | ||
| Little Red Hen | John McGrath | 16 September – 13 December 1975 | ||
| The Cheviot, the Stag, and the Black Black Oil | 31 March – June 1973 | |||
| The Game’s a Bogey | 1974 | |||
Findlay, Bill (1982), review of Clydebuilt: A season of Scottish Popular Drama from the '20s, '30s and '40s, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 10, Autumn 1982, p. 39,