Golden City 50 Exhibition
50th Anniversary of 'Stupendous' Theatrical Event
Fifty years ago Glasgow based Strathclyde Theatre Group created a landmark theatrical production which was celebrated this year with an exhibition at the Edinburgh Festival.
The exhibition was open from 1-31 August 2024 in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh - the venue for the original production's Edinburgh run.
The exhibition reopened in Glasgow in October 2024 at the University of Strathclyde's Teaching and Learning Building, 49 Richmond Street, Glasgow, G1 1XU and welcomed visitors until December 2024; a reception for STG folk was held on 24 October 2024.
The Golden City was lauded by the Glasgow Herald critic as: ‘Always absorbing, often deeply moving and at moments can without hyperbole be called stupendous…Brilliantly justifies the time and work put into it.’
After a week-long run in August 1974 in Glasgow Cathedral, the production transferred to St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh where The Guardian declared The Golden City to be ‘the Festival’s single dramatic sensation’ and it won a coveted Scotsman Fringe First Award, the only amateur company to do so.
The Golden City was a major promenade theatre production created by the Strathclyde Theatre Group over a year.
There was a lot of live music; two bands, and a synthesizer (fairly new at the time), and at one of the performances all of the music was recorded live - recovery of that recording is in hand.
An indication of the scale of the production, which utilised the entire nave in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, can be gauged from the photograph of rigging in Glasgow Cathedral
The production's radio trailer broadcast the Sunday before the show opened in Glasgow is already available Golden City Radio Trailer (.mp3 file)
The shows music has been the subject of recovery and curation click or touch to visit the music page.
A facsimile of the 1974 programme, with company list and background material is available for download Golden City programme (two up .pdf file)
2024 is the production's 50th anniversary, it seems an apposite time to both celebrate the achievement and remember the folk who worked on the production but have joined the ancestors.
Strathclyde Theatre Group was an initiative of the Department of English Studies and more broadly the University of Strathclyde; it was active from the 1970’s until the early 2010’s. Its membership was drawn from the University of Strathclyde, other local academic institutions and the broader community.
Many of its alumni went on to work in film, theatre and television. The organisers of the Golden City 50 event want to hear from anyone who was involved in creating or taking part in The Golden City, or who wishes to assist with the celebration.
The organizers remain particularly interested in memories and memorabilia from those of the more than 100 Strathclyde Theatre Group actors, musicians and technical crew who took part in the production with whom they are not yet in touch.
Contact the organisers at stg@goldencity50.info
Click or touch the poster to enter The Golden City 50th Aniversary Exhibition
Click or touch for Site Map navigation
Rigging The Golden City in Glasgow Cathedral
Staging and Lighting Plan : The Golden City in Glasgow Cathedral
Staging and Lighting Plan : The Golden City in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh
Click or touch for Site Map navigation
Who's Involved
Anyone with knowledge of or interest in The Golden City or STG can be involved. Currently, the comittee of taste for this project comprises folk from the early 1970's. Specifically: Bulge (WebHead), Colin MacNab (AudioHead), Donald Fraser, Laura Shirley, Liz Gardiner, Mike Tedder (MusoHead), Phyllis, Sandy Johnson, Roger Green and Ron Weir. If you wish to be involved please eMail us at stg@goldencity50.info
Project Status
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