Robert Kemp (playwright)

Not to be confused with Robert Kemp (literary critic).

Robert Kemp (1908–1967) was a Scottish playwright.

He was born at Longhope in Orkney, where his father was the minister. Educated at Robert Gordon's College and the University of Aberdeen, 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. 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”. His son, Arnold Kemp, achieved fame as a newspaper editor.

Published work

Robert Kemp's plays include

• The Heart is Highland
• The Laird o' Grippy
• Let Wives Tak Tent  : a free translation into Scots of Molière's 'L'école des femmes' performed by the Compagnie Jouvet of Paris at the Edinburgh International Festival, 1947
• Off A Duck's Back
• The Other Dear Charmer
• The Perfect Gent
• The Asset (play)

External links

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