Background (Scottish Highers English): Revision Notes
Background
Publication and performance history
Men Should Weep takes place during the 1930s. It first reached the stage through Glasgow Unity Theatre's production at the Athenaeum Theatre in 1947. The play gained renewed attention when Glasgow's 7:84 Company adapted and revived it in 1982, earning widespread acclaim. A further production by the National Theatre in 2010 established the play's status as one of the twentieth century's most enduring Scottish dramatic works.
Ena Lamont Stewart authored both the original 1947 script and the revised 1982 version. The 1982 adaptation forms part of the Scottish Higher English set text list and differs substantially in tone and outcome from its predecessor.
The play's journey from its 1947 debut to its 1982 revival and 2010 National Theatre production demonstrates its enduring relevance to Scottish theatre. Each production reflected the social attitudes and theatrical conventions of its time, with the 1982 version becoming the most widely studied adaptation.
The 1947 version
A darker vision
Stewart's original production presents a notably bleaker portrait of working-class life. The 1947 audience, many of whom had lived through similar hardships, would have recognised the authenticity of the struggles depicted. Stewart made no attempt to soften or lighten the representation of poverty and unemployment. The narrative refuses to comfort its audience or suggest redemption.
The Uncompromising 1947 Ending
The 1947 ending demonstrates this uncompromising approach with a series of tragic outcomes:
- Young Bertie dies from his illness
- John Morrison steals from his daughter Lily and returns to alcoholism
- Alec follows through on his threat to kill Isa
- Granny faces institutionalisation in the poorhouse
- Jenny returns to the family home as a destitute prostitute
- Maggie dies in childbirth
Each character meets a tragic fate that reflects the brutal reality of Depression-era Glasgow. This relentless tragedy made the original version difficult for modern audiences to engage with over the course of a full performance.
The 1982 revival
Changes in tone and reception
Stewart's rewrite for 7:84 at the Citizens Theatre introduces moments of optimism and humour despite depicting difficult circumstances. Critical debate continues over which version better serves the play's purpose. Some theatre critics argue that the more positive 1982 ending sacrifices realism. However, modern audiences generally find the relentless tragedy and hopelessness of the original difficult to engage with over the course of a full performance.
The revised version offers the Morrison family a measure of hope. The largely working-class audience of 1982 could see possibilities for their own lives reflected in this resilience. This shift in tone suited the political aims of the production company.
The 7:84 Company
7:84 operated as a prominent theatre group committed to Socialist principles. The company staged productions that explored poverty and social injustice. Their name derives from a statistic published in The Economist in 1966, which revealed that seven per cent of the British population controlled eighty-four per cent of the nation's wealth at that time. This stark economic inequality runs throughout the play, informing its depiction of the Morrison family's circumstances and the broader social context they inhabit.
The 7:84 Company's commitment to politically engaged theatre made them the ideal producers for Stewart's revised script. Their focus on working-class stories and Socialist themes aligned perfectly with the play's exploration of poverty and social injustice. The company's very name served as a constant reminder of the wealth inequality that forms the backdrop to the Morrison family's struggles.
The play's title and gender politics
Ironic commentary on male behaviour
Stewart uses irony in her choice of title to challenge contemporary attitudes towards gender roles. The phrase "Men Should Weep" appears to mock the notion that men have greater cause for despair than women, despite both sexes experiencing poverty, unemployment and shame. Women were expected to maintain the home, preserve morale and keep domestic routines functioning. The title suggests that men should recognise and acknowledge the position women occupy in holding families together.
Throughout the play, John Morrison repeatedly expresses anguish over his situation. He wrings his hands and falls into despair. His wife Maggie demonstrates solidity and resilience, rarely collapsing into self-pity. The contrast between them becomes most apparent at the play's conclusion, where Maggie stands strong whilst John remains overwhelmed. The title invites male audience members to examine the causes of their self-pity and take action to overcome their circumstances.
Gender Dynamics and Strength
Stewart avoids sentimentalising or romanticising poverty. Instead, the play presents a realistic account of how economic hardship affects people whose emotional and psychological resources prove insufficient to cope with sustained deprivation. The title's irony highlights that while men were traditionally expected to be strong providers, it is often the women who demonstrate true strength in adversity.
Ena Lamont Stewart
Early life and career
Born on 10 February 1912 in Glasgow, Stewart was the only daughter of a clergyman and his Canadian-born wife. She spent most of her life in the city, working as a librarian at Baillie's reference library. She married Scottish actor Jack Stewart and had a son, William. The couple joined Glasgow's MSU Repertory Theatre in Rutherglen, which produced her first play, Distinguished Company, in 1942.
Three years later, the same company staged her next work, Starched Aprons. This production drew directly from Stewart's experiences working as a receptionist at the city centre's children's hospital. In this role, she encountered families from the Gorbals suffering from malnutrition, tuberculosis and other diseases associated with poverty. These observations disturbed her and shaped her later dramatic work.
Development of realistic style
Working at the hospital allowed Stewart to absorb the rhythms and patterns of everyday working-class speech. This attention to authentic dialogue contributes to the play's realism. Stewart's motivation for writing about ordinary Glasgow life emerged from her dissatisfaction with conventional drama of the period. She describes this moment of inspiration:
Stewart's Vision for Realistic Theatre
"One evening in the winter of 1942 I went to the theatre. I came home in a mood of red-hot revolt against cocktail time, glamorous gowns and under-worked, about-to-be-deceived husbands. I asked myself what I wanted to see on stage and the answer was life. Real life. Ordinary people."
This statement reveals her determination to move beyond middle-class drawing-room dramas and represent the experiences of working-class Glaswegians on stage.
Stewart's direct contact with working-class families through her hospital work provided her with invaluable insight into their lives, speech patterns, and struggles. This authentic understanding sets Men Should Weep apart from other social dramas of the period, which often portrayed working-class life from an outsider's perspective.
Contemporary assessment
Writer and broadcaster Kenneth Roy, who maintained a long friendship with Stewart and championed her work, offered this assessment of her achievements:
Kenneth Roy on Stewart's Talent
"It was such a male chauvinist society then and it was difficult for any women writers to make any impression…She was always thought of as a Communist, but she was actually just a great critic and observer. Some of her abilities were journalistic. She observed the society around her, and had this uncanny ability of scraping up language and turning it into these great works of art."
Roy's comments highlight both the obstacles Stewart faced as a female playwright in mid-twentieth-century Scotland and her particular talent for transforming observed speech patterns into dramatic dialogue. The perception of her as a Communist reflects the political suspicion that surrounded realistic portrayals of working-class hardship, though Roy insists her primary skill lay in observation rather than political ideology.
Key Points to Remember:
- The 1947 version ends tragically for all characters, whilst the 1982 revision introduces hope and comic relief to make the material more accessible to modern audiences.
- The 7:84 Company's name references the statistic that 7% of the population controlled 84% of Britain's wealth, highlighting the economic inequality that permeates the play.
- Stewart's title uses irony to criticise male self-pity and challenge traditional gender expectations about who bears the greater burden of poverty.
- Stewart's experiences working in a hospital and library gave her direct contact with working-class Glaswegians, informing her realistic dialogue and understanding of poverty's effects.