McGonagall Festival, Dundee
'MC' GONAGALL AND THE DUNDEE BEAT
Pic: William
McGonagall
As
a new play and exhibition devoted to the work of William Topaz McGonagall
opens in Dundee, Hilary McNally finds out more about the controversial
poet.
To some William Topaz McGonagall is quite simply the world's worst poet. His unusual use of rhyme and his unorthodox meter have been lambasted by literary critics as laughable.
To others, however, he was a man way ahead of his time, a misunderstood genius and even, according to some, the father of modern day rap music.
Ed Cairney, the co-ordinator of the McGonagall Festival in Dundee stands firmly in the latter camp and has set about changing attitudes to a man who, talented or not, is still remembered 100 years after his death.
Ed came up with the idea of holding a festival in honour of McGonagall two years ago while working on a musical about Robert Burns, Scotland's more widely accepted bard.
"I wasn't really getting anywhere with it because he is such a public icon and I kept thinking maybe I can't say this without someone jumping down my throat," he said.
"Then I remembered my cousin, an actor who often performs Burns' work, saying to me that he much preferred doing McGonagall. That started me thinking so I looked up the poem the Rattling Boy from Dublin and wrote the music for it in about five minutes.
"Then I realised I had written it on 29 September 2000, the 98th anniversary of McGonagall's death. After that the musical just wrote itself."
Unfortunately for Ed his plans to stage the musical in Dundee hit problems but by that time the idea of holding a festival had firmly taken root.
"It is too big a project for an amateur company to take on board but it gave me the idea for the festival," he said.
Ed, who is keen to put his musical on CD and sell it to raise money for the McGonagall statue fund, says he's hoping to change people's attitudes.
"One
of the things that really annoys me is the way some people always
have to add "the world's worst poet" whenever McGonagall's name
is mentioned," he said.
"I think people have to look at him in a different kind of way. He was a man way ahead of his time. If he had been an artist and was throwing buckets of paint around that would have been acceptable. I think he has had a bad press.
"He's recognised as the father of rap in some parts of America. If you look at the rhyme he uses there is an inherent instability about it and it just rolls and rolls and then hits a buffer and goes off again."
Fans and critics alike will have the chance to hear the evidence this month (September) at the world premier of Chris Ballance's one-man play McGonagall The Great Entertainer. Actor John Shedden will play McGonagall in the drama, which tells the poet's life story and includes readings of his numerous works.
The play opens in Dundee, McGonagall's adopted hometown, on 19 September for three days before heading to Edinburgh.
On 20 September an exhibition dedicated to McGonagall's life also opens in Dundee at the city's Central Library. This will include life-size photographs of the poet, manuscripts and McGonagall memorabilia. It will run until the end of October.
By that time Ed hopes people will have re-assessed their attitudes to McGonagall and his poetry.
"I hope the festival will re-educate people. We need to read his poetry with a totally unprejudiced eye. We have to remember that his poetry is performance poetry. It is meant to be read aloud.
"I think he has made poetry more accessible. We don't need just nice safe artists. We need people like him".
For more information on the festival visit the website www.mcgonagall.info
(19/9/2002)
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