A POP-up book made for stage show The Cheviot, the Stag and the Black, Black Oil is to be kept off the shelf at the V&A Dundee.
Artist John Byrne popped into the National Library of Scotland (NLS) today as the Edinburgh institution confirmed a 25-year-of the famous work to the soon-to-open Tayside museum.
Made in 1973, the book was the original stage set for the influential John McGrath play, which explored the history and exploitation of the Highlands.
Byrne, whose own theatre trilogy The Slab Boys also won acclaim, used cardboard to make the book prop, which was designed for easy transport as the 7:84 theatre company toured the country.
Actors would turn the pages to reveal the next scene, exposing a Highland landscape, a croft house, a poppy-strewn war memorial and a Native American tipi.
NLS acquired the book nine years ago, making it the largest in its collection. It will now be displayed in V&A Dundee's Scottish Design Galleries when the long-awaited centre opens in September.
Philip Long, director of V&A Dundee, said: “John Byrne’s striking pop-up book is a fantastic example of imaginative design. Not only was it made to be portable on the long trips between towns and villages across the Highland and Islands, it also added to the magic of the play. It is painted like a children’s book, which deliberately creates quite a juxtaposition with the hard-hitting subject matter of the play.
“Due to its sheer size there have been limited opportunities for the public to see this stage set after the original 1970s tour of the play, so we are delighted that people will be able to enjoy it when they visit V&A Dundee.”
Dr John Scally, national librarian and chief executive of NLS, said: “It will be difficult to let this important part of our collection go after years of careful restoration. But that is the whole point of preservation – to enable future generations to enjoy items of great national and cultural significance.
“We can’t think of a more fitting place for the stage-set to be on display than V&A Dundee. But for anyone who won’t be able to see it in person, we are thrilled to say we digitised the stage-set so anyone in Scotland – or indeed the world – can view a 3D model online.
"As we race to have a third of our collection in digital format by our centenary in 2025, this is one of the highlights.”
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