In 2024 Isla Cowan has joined us as IASH/Traverse Playwriting Fellow, working on a new ecofeminist play. We sat down with her for a 10 Question interview to find out more about her new play, her experience of the fellowship and what drives her work.
1. Can you tell us a bit about the play you’ve been writing as part of the IASH/Traverse playwriting fellowship?
My play is a dystopian eco-thriller, currently titled ‘The Smallest Thing’. It’s set in the wake of an environmental crisis in which all the pollinating insects – and, in particular, honeybees – have died out, causing ecosystem collapse and global food shortages. The play follows two very different women: Debbie, a top-level scientist who has lived in isolation for years working on a project that could change the world; and Aeda, a worker from an illegal, black-market farm, where humans are being forced to hand-pollinate crops with pots of pollen and tiny brushes. When these two characters collide, they are forced to go on the run together, traversing a stark landscape of hunger and desperation as they endeavour to save the world’s last bee. It’s a fast-paced, high-stakes play about sacrifice and survival – a play that questions the value of human relationships, of nature and of science, and of what we’re willing to risk for the sake of the ‘greater good’.
2. What was your starting point for writing the play and what sort of references and research did you draw upon?
My play is inspired by the current threats facing pollinating insects – global warming, pesticides, and increased disease due to commercial farming practices. I first came across this issue through a news story about declining honeybee populations a few years ago, which prompted me to think more about our relationship with insects and their role in global ecosystems and food production, and what might happen if they were ever to go extinct. Whilst in Residence at the Traverse and IASH, I’ve been able to use the university resources to pursue further research on these topics. In particular, I went to visit the university apiary and learned so much from speaking with the master beekeeper there. But I’ve also been looking into ‘speculative fiction’ and different dystopian modes as well, revisiting books, films and TV shows, like The Road, Children of Men, The Last of Us, and The Handmaid’s Tale.
3. What do you imagine a future production of your new play will look like?
This is an exciting question! One of the really interesting things about writing this play has been thinking about how to translate the dystopian genre to the stage. Of course, I’m not the first playwright to attempt this – there are plays like Human Animals by Stef Smith, Far Away by Caryl Churchill, and Mr Burns by Anne Washburn, to name but a few. For this play, though, I’m thinking about the spectacle of apocalyptic and dystopian cinema – how the camera pans across vast devasted landscapes, takes an aerial view of crumbling cities, or zooms out from epic totalitarian towers – which isn’t really possible in the same way in theatre. So, in ‘The Smallest Thing’, I’m trying to purposely subvert this sense of scale and spectacle by centring an insect in the drama: something so small we can barely see it from the audience – and yet it is the most important and powerful thing in the play. I’m interested in what this then does to the human dynamics and drama of the dystopia – what happens when the spectacle is removed? When the most precious thing is something we can’t see? What does that say about the seen and unseen? About hope and belief and the future?... So, considering a production of the play, I maybe imagine a design that does the same thing – removes spectacle – and presents something quite stark and bare and stripped back. I imagine it being very dark and dusty on stage. Very dramatic – and mythic!
4. How have you found your experience working with the Traverse and IASH throughout 2024?
It’s been such a privilege to work with the Traverse and IASH on this play. My office in the IASH building, overlooking the Meadows, has been like a little haven and I’ve really enjoyed attending weekly lunches and seminars with the other IASH fellows. It’s fascinating to get an insight into these academics’ research – in a variety of fields – and it’s been really stimulating to be part of the IASH intellectual community. I think the highlight for me was going on the IASH writers’ retreat a few weeks ago – which was a weekend away in a big, beautiful house at The Burn, where I got lots of writing done and had a glorious little trip to the neighbouring town of Edzell too.
5. What compels you as a writer?
I often describe my work as ‘ecofeminist’ as a way of capturing my interest in issues of ecology and environment and my focus on female characters and feminist frames. More specifically, I’m interested in exploring the knotty intersections of gender, class and ecological crisis. I grew up in a low-income, single-parent household, before going on to study English Literature at the University of Cambridge. The disparity between the socio-economic conditions of my upbringing and my education motivates much of my work. I understand that environmental concerns are not at the forefront of everyone’s daily thoughts: who cares about climate change when you’re trying to put food on the table? So, as a playwright, I’m compelled to make work which responds to and interrogates this in various ways, combining my socio-political sensibilities and my environmentalist concerns.
I’m also really compelled by real life stories. A lot of what I write is inspired by something I’ve read in the news (like the story about honeybee decline which inspired my IASH play!) or a historical event, like the musical I co-wrote with Andy McGregor, To Save the Sea, which recently toured Scotland. I like engaging with real world events and contemporary issues in this way, revisioning events or presenting a certain perspective on an existing narrative. And I’ve also found true stories are often more surprising, absurd, and dramatic than anything I could’ve ever invented!
6. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given as a writer?
The audience is always smarter than you think, and usually one step ahead of you.
7. We know that you often explore ecofeminist themes that challenge both the audience and the artist, why do you think this is so important?
Plays shouldn’t offer answers but ask questions. And if my plays are to ask questions, then they need to be questions that also perplex and trouble me as a writer. It’s important that I find whatever I’m writing about difficult and knotty – whether that’s a big socio-political question like who should be responsible for fighting climate crisis or it’s exploring a rift in a relationship where I believe both characters are right. If I come down on one side of a debate or take sides with a certain character, then the play becomes a lecture or a lesson. So, whenever I write a play, I want to be challenged in the process of writing it, both in relation to the content – the question or problem I’m exploring – and in my attempt to wrangle the thing into shape, to give the idea form. I think this is what makes for exciting, provocative theatre. If it’s easy, then the play’s probably boring.
8. You have worked with the Traverse a few times in different contexts, from our Traverse Young Writers programme to our FOH team! What is it like to have charted each of these steps and now been a writer in residence with us?
I’ve really cherished all the roles I’ve had at the Traverse, and it’s a theatre that’s been key to my development as a playwright and director. I grew up in Edinburgh, so the Trav was my home theatre and central to many of my first theatrical experiences. I remember performing in Trav 2, as part of the NT Connections Festival with the Lyceum Youth Theatre back in 2012. Later, when I came back to Edinburgh after uni, I got a job as an usher and learnt so much through this – not only getting to see some fab shows while on shift, but also getting to see and observe different audiences, and how they engaged with a range of productions. I’m always thinking about the audience when I write, and the relationship between them and the performers and the events on stage, so having the chance to watch and analyse audience reactions to different plays whilst sitting in as an usher was invaluable. I was also Assistant Director on GUT in 2018, which was one of my first professional theatre jobs, where I met lots of incredible people and learnt so much, as well as furthering my craft as a Traverse Young Writer a few years later, and then coming on board as a director for a Traverse scratch night. It really does feel like the Traverse has been there for many of the big milestones in my career – and the IASH commission has felt like a real highlight for me!
9. Your work also includes running workshops centred around similar themes to that which is explored in your writing. How do you find these two elements of your practice intersect?
Rather selfishly(!), leading workshops is invaluable to my writing practice – because to teach something, you first have to reflect on how you actually do it yourself. So, whenever I’m teaching, I’m really interrogating my own process and practice, as well as engaging the work of other playwrights, and I think this makes me a better writer. Also, theatre is such a collaborative artform, and yet the writing bit of it – especially at the start – can often be really lonely. Leading workshops is a way of fostering and facilitating community, as well as passing on skills and techniques, and I love connecting with other writers in this way. I’ve also found my work in teaching young people and in youth theatre particularly inspiring – the creativity in these spaces is unparalleled!
10. What’s next for you; either with regards to the play or more generally in your career?
There’s still a few more redrafts to go on this play, and hopefully some development time. As for me, I’m also wrapping up my work as Resident Writer at the Tron Theatre and finishing a draft of ‘Suicide Sunday’, a play about a working-class student getting involved with an elite female drinking society at a prestigious university, exploring issues of gender, power, and privilege. I’ve also got a few things lined up for 2025 – including a new production of Alright Sunshine at the Tron in Spring as part of Studio 3 – and I’m looking forward to starting work on a new play (which might even be a trilogy of plays?!) set here in Edinburgh in the early twentieth century.