Robert Kemp (playwright)

Not to be confused with Robert Kemp (literary critic).

Robert Kemp (1908–1967) was a Scottish playwright. Along with Tom Fleming and Lennox Milne, he was a founder of the Edinburgh Gateway Company (1953 - 1965).

He was born at Longhope in Orkney, where his father was the minister. Educated at Robert Gordon's College and the University of Aberdeen, he lived in London and then in Edinburgh (in Warriston Crescent). Before turning to drama, he trained as a journalist with the Manchester Guardian. From the time he adapted Molière's L'Ecole des Femmes for the Scottish stage in 1947 he sought to promote a distinctly national drama, often employing Scots dialogue. His A Trump for Jericho, a comedy set in the New Town of Edinburgh at the time of the Disruption in 1843 was first performed by the Scottish National Players in 1947. He also wrote plays for the Glasgow Citizens and Dundee Repertory Theatre. In 1948, working with Tyrone Guthrie, he staged a revival of Scotland's first Scottish play, David Lyndsay's Ane Pleasant Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis and, also in 1948, he coined the phrase “Edinburgh Festival Fringe”. His adaptation of Allan Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd was staged at the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland in 1949. His son, Arnold Kemp, achieved fame as a newspaper editor.

Published work

Robert Kemp's plays include:

• Let Wives Tak Tent (1948): a free translation into Scots of Molière's L'école des femmes inspired by the Compagnie Jouvet of Paris's production of the play at the first Edinburgh International Festival in 1947
• A Trump for Jericho (1947), Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd. (1985) and Players Press (1996)
• The Heart is Highland (1954)
• The Laird o' Grippy (1954): a free translation into Scots of Molière's L'avare (The Miser)
• The Penny Wedding (1957), Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd. (1985)
• The Scientific Singers / A Nest of Singing Birds (1955 / 1957), Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd. (1985)
• Off A Duck's Back (1961)
• The Other Dear Charmer, Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd. (1985)
• The Perfect Gent (1962)
• The Asset (play)
• Master John Knox, St. Andrew Press (1960)
• Venom for Two, Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd. (1985)

Other plays

• Seven Bottles for the Maestro (1945)
• When the Star Fell (1946), a nativity play staged for Christmas at the Church of Scotland's Gateway Theatre at 41 Elm Row, Edinburgh
• Conspirators (1955)
• Marigold (1955), a musical play, with music by Cedric Thorpe Davie
• The Man Among the Roses (1956), a verse play based on the ballad of Tam Lin
• The Daft Days (1957), adapted from the novel by Neil Munro
• Rob Roy (1960), adapted from the novel by Sir Walter Scott

Further reading

• Mackie, A.D., Kemp, Robert, Milne, Lennox, Fleming, Tom & Kelsall, Moultrie R. (1965), The Twelve Seasons of the Edinburgh Gateway Company, 1953 - 1965, St. Giles Press, Edinburgh
• Findlay, Bill, "The Founding of a Modern Tradition: Robert Kemp's Scots translations of Molière at the Gateway", in Brown, Ian (ed.) (2004), Journey's Beginning: The Gateway Theatre Building and Company, 1884 - 1965, Intellect Ltd., Bristol, ISBN 978-1841501086

External links

• Special Collection of Robert Kemp's work held by Glasgow University Library.