Anne’s Caterpillar drama heading for The Fringe
Playwright delighted show will appear in capital
A Tannochside writer’s play inspired by the Caterpillar occupation is to be staged at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Anne Hogg’s play ‘Out of the Bad’ is about a woman whose husband worked at the plant in the late 1980s recalling the occupation to her daughter 30 years after the event.
The main character Mary was part of a women’s group of wives and mothers who backed their husbands and sons during the occupation.
The play was staged at Motherwell Civic Centre along with Anne’s play ‘Butterfly’ – which also has a Caterpillar factory theme – as part of the 30th anniversary commemorations earlier this year.
Anne (57), whose home sits on the site of the former factory, said this week she was delighted to have ‘Out of the Bad’ performed at the Fringe.
She said: “It’s hugely exciting. I suppose Edinburgh is a bit like Mecca for playwrights. I’m indebted to the producer at the Fair Pley Theatre Company Stephen Wright.
“All the credit for organising the run is down to him.
“The rehearsals for the show start on July 13 and I might pop along to the read through. I’m always a bit concerned that having the writer in the rehearsal room might inhibit the actors in some way so I tend to go along just occasionally.
“I’m definitely going along to the opening performance on August 4 – and I’ll be popping along now and again.”
It was Anne’s own experience of the Caterpillar occupation – where her father John Mcpherson worked as a machine operator – which prompted her to write the plays.
She explained: “My dad was 55 when the occupation took place. If you lost your job at that age you were not likely to get another one.
“In September 1986 the workers were told about plans to invest £62million in the plant and it would be safe for a number of years, only for them to be told three months later that the plant was to be closed. “The injustice of that really hit home.” ‘Butterfly’ has also been staged at the Play, a Pie and a Pint lunchtime theatre in Glasgow’s Oran Mor.
Anne left the civil service in the early 1990s where she worked with the National Savings Bank and DHSS to become a child minder.
She went to Glasgow University to study English Literature and History of Art in the early 2000s which she followed with an MA in creative writing from Napier University. As well as writing plays and theatre reviews she has been working with women’s comedy writing group ‘Whitsherface’. ‘Out of the Bad’ will run at the New Town Theatre in George Street, Edinburgh, from August 4 to 26.