Robert Kemp (playwright)

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).^[1]

He was born at Longhope in Orkney, where his father was the minister. Educated at Robert Gordon's College and the University of Aberdeen,^[2] 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.^[3] 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.^[4] He also wrote plays for the Glasgow Citizens and Dundee Repertory Theatre.^[5] 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”.^[6] His adaptation of Allan Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd was staged at the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland in 1949.^[5] His son, Arnold Kemp, achieved fame as a newspaper editor.

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,^[7] 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)

• Seven Bottles for the Maestro (1945)^[5]
• When the Star Fell (1946), a nativity play staged for Christmas at the Church of Scotland's Gateway Theatre at 41 Elm Row, Edinburgh^[8]
• 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^[1]

• 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

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

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