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Apart from the similarity in names, one would not expect any confusion between the plays of fiery socialist John McGrath, best known for his association with the 7:84 Theatre Company, and those of Tom McGrath, whose most popular work to date. is about Laurel and Hardy. Yet it is Tom McGrath's expose of Scottish prison's *-e Hard Man premiered in May at the Edinburgh Traverse which has brought covert threats of political censorship from the Scottish Office.
The Hard Man is McGrath's investigation of violence in Scottish society presented in the form of a thinly disguised biography of Glasgow gangster Jimmy Boyle, jailed for life on a murder charge in 1967. The centrepiece of the play involves an on-stage reconstruction of the notorious "cages" at Portersfield prison, Inverness, where prisoners were confined - naked.
The real Boyle had a further six years added to his sentence for his part in the Portersfield prison rising which resulted in these cages being put in cold storage. Little wonder the Scottish Office were sensitive about such techniques coming to light. Fortunately a well orchestrated press campaign seems to have frightened off a rumoured high court injunction banning the play.
However, beyond the agitprop, MeGrath's play fails to make an adequate statement about the unique aspects of institutionalised violence in Scotland. It does not tell us why Scotland puts more people in prison per head of population than any other country in Europe, nor why Scottish teachers still daily perpetrate common assault on children with a leather belt. In some senses the Boyle character is in fact divorced from important aspects of violence in Scotland - for instance his disaproval of religious sectarianism. As a general comment on the violence - provoking alienation of capitalist society, The Hard Man has something to say but little new to add.
McGrath's failure lies in his unfailing liberalism. The dramatic heart of his play is not the altogether too sensationalist use of the "cage" but a speech by the warder Paisley. This character is portrayed as a sadistir screw, tolerated and protected by the majority of warders because his violence ensures the safety of his colleagues. At a crucial point Paisley faces the audience and poses the liberals dilemma: if you have sympathy for the Boyle - character because "society made him what he is" then you must also sympathise with Paisley as he is equally a product of the same system.
We beg to disagree. Violence is not neutral: for socialists it is a question of distinguishing between the violence of the oppressed, and the violence of the oppressor.
Because it does not make this distinction but honourably acquits both screw and con, The Hard Man ends on a weak note dramatically. For though McGrath's liberal conscience leads him to wish to condemn the prison system he is robbed of a climaz because he ultimately accepts it as society' garbage disposal unit. To contrive an ending McGrath is forced into having the Boyle character smear himself with his own excrement to fend off Paisley. Showing presumably that the individual will triumph. Crap indeed. It was the mass of prisoners who triumphed when their collective rising broke the system at Porterfield.
The director and cast of The Hard Man weaknesses. Praise must also go to Traverse make a brave try at overcoming the play's director Chris Parr for standing up to intimidation. Parr has lately been denounced for "nationalism" and "commercialism" at the Traverse. In a Morningside accent, that means any attempt to say something relevant about Scottish society in a way people still understand.