John Cairney
This collection includes correspondence, photographs, presscuttings, programmes, sketches, scripts and several theatre scrapbooks. It also includes the John Cainrey Burns Archive.
John Cairney began his professional career with the Park Theatre in Glasgow in the late 1940s. After training at the newly formed Drama School within the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, Cairney joined the Wilson Barrett Company as Snake in The School for Scandal. A season at the Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre followed before going on to the Bristol Old Vic where he appeared in the British premiere of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. He returned to the Citizens' in the early 60s when his reputation as a leading man was established, most notably as Hamlet.
Cairney also developed his one man show about Robert Burns. His association with Burns began in 1965 with Tom Wright’s solo playThere Was A Man at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, and at the Arts Theatre, London. The solo was televised twice nationally and was also an album recording for REL Records, Edinburgh, as well as a video for Green Place Productions, Glasgow.
In 1988 Dr Cairney gained an M.Litt from Glasgow University for a History of Solo Theatre.
He has worked as actor, recitalist, lecturer, director and theatre consultant, been published as an author and, most recently, exhibited as a painter.
How to find material relating to John Cairney
- Browse through a list of documents or events associated with John Cairney or use the Name Search option on the Scottish Theatre Archive Search
See also
- John Cairney: information on the life and works of John Cairney
