Union Theatre is an Edinburgh-based independent theatre company founded in the wake of Edinburgh’s Arkle Theatre Company with the mission statement of the power of grassroots and the aim of fostering a spirit of collaboration.
This June, Union Theatre presents a new production of the Peter Arnott play Shall Roger Casement Hang?
Based on real events in the run up to the 1916 Easter Rising, the play is a dramatisation of the arrest and interrogation of diplomat and Irish Nationalist Roger Casement. In a confrontation of two men who have served Britain, the play asks fundamental questions about history, colonialism and national identity. The stakes are raised when violent events elsewhere come to light along with a revelation about Casement.
Written by Peter Arnott 100 years after the events that inspired it, Shall Roger Casement Hang? premiered at the Tron Theatre as part of its 2016 Mayfesto season in the wake of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. In a year when the population of Scotland went to the polls for the seventh Scottish Parliament election, Union Theatre revisit this important piece of work ten years on, with the question of Scottish independence as prevalent as ever and in the shadow of rising violence across Britain all in the name of national identity.
With a career that spans theatre across Scotland and elsewhere, Peter Arnott is often described as one of Scotland’s most beloved and prolific playwrights. His dramatic works include White Rose (Traverse Theatre, 1985), The Signalman (Play, Pie & a Pint, 2019) and the award-winning The Breathing House (The Royal Lyceum, 2023).
To learn more about Union Theatre Company, subscribe for updates, and to book tickets for Shall Roger Casement Hang?, please visit www.uniontheatre.co.uk.
Dates: 15th– 19th June 2026
Venue: Hill Street Theatre, Edinburgh
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 