By Senay Boztas, Arts Correspondent

SCOTTISH arts organisations are launching a radical festival to coincide with the G8 summit in Gleneagles this July to add their weight to a campaign aimed at bringing tens of thousands on to the streets in national protest.

Around a dozen companies will tour Scotland, inviting the eight world leaders, MSPs and local councillors to take part in alternative debates.

Drama pieces, including work by the long-standing political theatre company 7:84, will be based on global problems such as inequitable land ownership, world poverty, and the protection of the environment.

The festival is part of a growing movement of people's protest, organised by the Make Poverty History campaign, created by the film writer and director Richard Curtis and Sir Bob Geldof.

Morven Gregor, the artistic director of the theatre company Birds of Paradise, has masterminded the festival, organised under the banner Ya Basta – Spanish for « enough already » ... which sounds like a certain Scottish colloquial insult.

Gregor said the gathering of the G8 leaders is an ideal moment to raise Scottish and international concerns, and revitalise political theatre.

She said: « We are organising eight weeks of action leading up to the G8 at the beginning of July. Quite often, people are interested in making issue-based theatre, and with G8 coming to Scotland, it seemed the moment to pull all of these people together.

« If you look at the [tsunami] disaster now, people do wake up to what is happening on the other side of the world. So why not make our collective voices heard, and get some accountability from the G8 organisers. »

The organisations interested include the Refugee Council, Artists in Exile, and Friends of the Earth. The drama pieces will tour the country for eight weeks from May 16, with the final performances taking place within spitting distance of the luxury resort where the G8 leaders are meeting.

One of the shows trying to tempt some of the world's busiest diplomats from the premier golfing resort will be Out Of The Bunker, a piece about the environment, by 7:84. Like another recent performance, Private Agenda, based on interviews with people in the public services, their new work will be followed by a debate.

Lorenzo Mele, artistic director of 7:84 – named after research that found 84% of Britain's wealth was owned by 7% of its people – said he hopes to connect audiences with politicians. He added: « Our working title refers to the perception of golf as exclusive and elitist. Will they just play golf and have meaningless chat? »

Ya Basta is just one protest voice among many. The Make Poverty History campaign is behind a planned rally of 100,000 people in Edinburgh on July 2. Meanwhile a Scottish coalition, G8 Alternatives, is hoping to organise a demonstration at Gleneagles by attempting to secure land for a « Convergence Centre » which would service protesters and provide « the biggest free party ever in Scotland ».

16 January 2005