Bill Findlay (writer)

Bill Findlay (11 June 1947 – 15 May 2005) was a Scottish writer, dramatist and theatre academic. As a translator, editor, critic and advocate, he made an important contribution to Scottish theatre.Corbett, John (2011), Translated Drama in Scotland, in Brown, Ian (ed.) (2011), The Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Drama, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 100, 101 & 105, Smith, Donald (2011), The Mid-Century Dramatists, in Brown, Ian (ed.) (2011), The Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Drama, Edinburgh University Press, p. 126, He worked as a lecturer in the School of Drama at Edinburgh's Queen Margaret UniversityParker, Geoff (ed.) (1986), Cencrastus No. 23, June - August 1986, p. 61, and was a founder editor and regular contributor to the Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs magazine, Cencrastus.Gunn, Linda and McCleery, Alistair (2009), Wasps in a Jam Jar: Scottish literary magazines and political culture 1979-99, in A. McNair, & J. Ryder (eds.), Further from the Frontiers: Crosscurrents in Irish and Scottish Studies, Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies, University of AberdeenCencrastus No. 1, Autumn 1979, p. 1,

Born in Culross in Fife, Findlay attended Dunfermline High School and left home in 1965 to work as a civil servant in London. He returned to Scotland in 1970 to attend Newbattle Abbey College, spending two years there before going on to Stirling University, where he graduated with a first class honours degree in English in 1976.Bill Findlay Translator, critic and champion of the Scots language, obituary in The Herald, Glasgow, 23 May 2005 His career in writing began when he won the McCash prize for poetry.Obituary: Bill Findlay, The List 522, 26 May - 9 June 2005, p. 94,

For the first issue of Cencrastus, in 1979, Findlay interviewed Margaret Atwood on the relationship of Canadian writers and writing to the 'Imperial Cultures' of America and Britain.Findlay, Bill (1979), Interview with Margaret Atwood, in Cencrastus No. 1, Autumn 1979, pp. 2 - 6,

Drama

In 1980, Findlay and Martin Bowman translated Michel Tremblay's Les Belles Sœurs into contemporary Scots as The Guid Sisters.Bowman, Martin & Findlay, Bill (1980), "Les Belles Soeurs" by Michael Tremblay: an extract translated by Martin Bowman and William Findlay, in Cencrastus No. 3, Summer 1980, pp. 4 - 8, Tremblay, Michel, Findlay, Bill and Bowman, Matin (1988), The Guid Sisters, Exile Editions, Michael Boyd produced their adaptation for Glasgow's Tron Theatre in 1989Burnet, Andrew (1989), Identity Crises, interview with Michel Tremblay, in The List, 21 April - 4 May 1989, p.16, and it went on to play in Toronto in 1990Fisher, Mark (1990), Toronto Tron, in The List 124, 29 June - 12 July 1990, p. 58, and at the Centaur Theatre in Montreal in 1992 as part of the British contribution to the city's 350th anniversary celebrations.Stevenson, Randall and Wallace, Gavin (1996), Scottish Theatre Since the Seventies, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 188 - 190, It was revived by the National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2012.Fisher, Mark (2012), Found in Translation, in the programme for the Lyceum Theatre / National Theatre of Scotland production of The Guid Sisters, 21 September - 13 October 2012, Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, pp. 10 - 13Ewin, Seth (2012),review of The Guid Sisters, British Theatre Guide, September 2012Fisher, Mark (2012), The Guid Sisters - review, The Guardian, 26 September 2012 In his review of the play, Andrew Latimer wrote "When Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay first translated Tremblay's text into fierce Glasgow-Scots, with all the care and political attentiveness required to succeed, something vibrant, globally resonant and deeply sociological was unlocked. While still situated in the realm of francophone Canada, the language couldn't be closer to our own doorstep."Latimer, Andrew (2012), review of The Guid Sisters, The Wee Review, 26 September 2012

In the years following the première of The Guid Sisters, Bowman and Findlay translated seven other Tremblay plays into Scots: Hosanna, The Real Wurld? (Tron, 1991);Wylie, Alan (1991), preview of Hosanna and The Real Wurld?, in The List 147, 3–16 May 1991, p.12, The House Among the Stars (Traverse Theatre and Perth Theatre, 1992);Kane, Rutherford (1992), preview of The House Among the Stars, in The List 187, 23 October - 5 November 1992, p. 42, Forever Yours, Marie-Lou (LadderMan Productions for the Tron, 1994);Fisher, Mark (1994), preview of Forever Yours, Marie-Lou, in The List 224, 8–21 April 1994, p. 44, Albertine in Five Times (Clyde Unity, 1998);Shepherd, Fiona (1998), review of Albertine in Five Times, in The List 326, 20 February - 5 March 1998, Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer (Traverse Theatre and the Barbican, 2000);Tremblay, Michel, Bowman, Martin and Findlay, Bill (2000), Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer, Nick Hern Books, and If Only... (Royal Lyceum Theatre, 2003).Cramer, Steve (2003), review of If Only..., in The List 464, 27 March - 10 April 1991, p. 60,review of If Only..., in The Herald, 25 March 2003Bowman, Martin (2012), A Note from Martin Bowman, in the programme for the Lyceum Theatre / National Theatre of Scotland production of The Guid Sisters, 21 September - 13 October 2012, Lyceum Theare, Edinburgh, pp. 14 & 15Tremblay in Scotland, in The List 385, 27 April - 11 May 2000, p. 21, The Tron Theatre took The Real Wurld? to the Stony Brook International Theatre Festival on Long Island, New York in 1991. John Corbett has described this body of work as making an 'honorable addition' to a long tradition of translating literature in a variety of languages into Scots.Corbett, John (1996), COMET and "The House Among the Stars": Scottish Texts via the Internet, in The Glasgow Review Issue 4 Jennifer Harvie has explored the cultural and political ramifications of the intercultural exchange represented by the translation of Tremblay's work in joual into Scots.Harvie, Jennifer (1995), The Real Nation? Michel Tremblay, Scotland, and Cultural Translatability, Theatre Research in Canada, Volume 16, Numbers 1 and 2, Spring and Fall 1995

Findlay and Bowman translated other works by Quebecois playwrights including Jeanne-Mance Delisle's The Reel of the Hanged Man (Stellar Quines, 2000).Cramer, Steve (2000), Reel Life Drama, preview of The Reel of the Hanged Man, in The List 382, 16–30 March 2000, p. 59, In November 2005, Michel-Marc Bouchard's The Skelfs was given a rehearsed reading at the Traverse Theatre as a memorial tribute to Findlay.Stage Whispers (2005), review of The Skelfs, in The List 536, 17 November - 1 December 2005, p. 87, On his own, Findlay undertook a number of Scots translations and adaptations, including Gerhart Hauptmann's The Weavers (Dundee Rep, 1997),Prentice, Claire (1997), review of The Weavers, in The List 320, 21 November - 4 December 1997, p. 63, Pavel Kohout's Fire in the Basement (Communicado, 1998),Burnet, Andrew (1998), preview of Fire in the Basement, in The List 339, 13–20 August 1998, p. 26, Teresa Lubkiewicz's Werewolves (Theatre Archipelago, 1999)Radcliffe, Allan (1999), review of Werewolves, in The List 370, 23 September - 7 October 1999, p. 63, and Raymond Cousse's Bairn's Brothers (Mull Little Theatre, 2000),.

Findlay was awarded a PhD in 2000 and held a readership in the School of Drama and Creative Industries at Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh. He edited and contributed the first chapter to A History of Scottish Theatre (1998). He also edited Scots Plays of the Seventies (2001), Frae Ither Tongues: Essays on Modern Translations into Scots (2004), and (with John Corbett) Serving Twa Maisters: An Anthology of Scots Translations of Classic Plays (2005).

After his death in 2005, Queen Margaret University School of Drama established a Bill Findlay Fellowship in Stage Translation in his memory.

In June 2023, the Association for Scottish Literature published two volumes of plays by Michel Tremblay, translated into Scots by Martin Bowman and Bill Findlay.

Bibliography Interview with Margaret Atwood, in Cencrastus No. 1, Autumn 1979, pp. 2 – 6, Clydebuilt, reviews of 7:84 Theatre Company, Scotland, Clydebuilt: A Season of Scottish Popular Theatre from the '20s, '30s and '40s; Joe Corrie, In Time o' Strife; and Ena Lamont Stewart, Men Should Weep, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 10, Autumn 1982, p. 39, The Articulate Scott, review of The Language of Walter Scott by Graham Tulloch, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 10, Autumn 1982, pp. 40 & 41, Celtic Omphalos, a review of Translations by Brian Friel, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 12, Spring 1983, pp. 43 & 44, Interview with John Updike, in Cencrastus No. 15, New Year 1984, pp. 30 – 36, Order, Order!, a review of Order and Space and Society: Architectural Form and its Context in the Scottish Enlightenment edited by Thomas A. Markus, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 16, Spring 1984, pp. 49 & 50, At the Shrine of the Thistle, an interview with Eric Marwick, in Lawson, Alan (ed.), Radical Scotland Aug/Sept 1985, pp. 30 & 31, 7:84's Scottish Popular Play Series, in Lawson, Alan (ed.), Radical Scotland Oct/Nov 1985, pp. 30 & 31, Fun in the Gorbals, in Lawson, Alan (ed.), Radical Scotland Dec/Jan 1986, p. 31, Diaskeuasts of the Omnific Word, in Parker, Geoff (ed.), Cencrastus No. 23, June - August 1986, pp. 48 – 52, Elegiac Action, reviews of Freeman, F.W. (1984), Robert Fergusson and the Scots Humanist Compromise; Fergusson, Robert, Auld Reekie, The Scream Press, 1984; and McClure, J. Derick (ed.) (1984), Scotland and the Lowland Tongue, in Parker, Geoff (ed.), Cencrastus No. 23, June - August 1986, pp. 57 – 60, Michel Tremblay, The Guid-Sisters, (Les Belles Sœurs translated into Scots by Bill Findlay and Martin Bowman), Exile Editions, 1988, Interview with Michel Tremblay, in Cencrastus No. 32, New Year 1989, pp. 30 – 33, Talking in Tongues: Scottish Translations 1970 - 1995, in Stevenson, Randall and Wallace, Gavin (eds.), Scottish Theatre since the Seventies, pp. 186 – 197, Edinburgh University Press, 1996, A History of Scottish Theatre,(Editor), Polygon, 1998, Scots Plays of the Seventies, (Editor), Scottish Cultural Press, 2001, Frae Ither Tongues: Essays on Modern Translations into Scots, Multilingual Matters Limited, 2004, "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, (with John Corbett) Serving Twa Maisters: An Anthology of Scots Translations of Classic Plays, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2005, "Performances and Plays", in Clancy, Thomas Owen & Pittock, Murray (eds.) (2007), The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature, Volume 1: From Columba to the Union (until 1707), Edinburgh University Press, Scottish People's Theatre: Plays by Glasgow Unity Writers, (Editor), Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2008, Michel Tremblay, Solemn Mass for a Full Moon in Summer, (Messe solennelle pour une pleine lune d'été translated into Scots by Bill Findlay and Martin Bowman), 2017, Nick Hern Books,

References