Dramaturgy of the Damned

Discussion and Reading group with Hussein Mitha

In the 1960s, working class mothers from the Craigmillar estate formed what they called a ‘people’s festival’. The Craigmillar Festival Society staged itself in direct contrast to the Edinburgh International Festival, a festival of the bourgeoisie. From a small street festival, it grew into a politically campaigning pressure group fighting and gaining significant political power over decisions affecting the district. Culture Vultures, the community musical they produced in 1977, provides an insight into the defiance and humour of a community that recognised itself as powerful in the face of a merciless ruling elite intent on neglect.

The 1980s saw a systematic destruction of the social fabric of Craigmillar by The City of Edinburgh Council. Today, we might look at the musical’s historical critique in light of the present incarnation of the Edinburgh International Festival, which is currently facing a boycott for its complicity in the genocide in Gaza, and still reigns supreme over official ‘culture’ in Edinburgh, while radical culture struggles to survive. 

This discussion group will involve reading extracts from Culture Vultures, ‘Dangerous Mothers,’ an essay by Rachael Cloughton, and other material relating to Craigmillar festival, comparing it with other near-contemporary proletarian festivals such as Claudia Jones’s founding of the Notting Hill Carnival in 1959.