Rona Munro and Stephen Greenhorn interview

Tracks of the Winter Bear at the Traverse theatre is not the first time that Rona Munro has worked with Stephen Greenhorn. “He’s been stalking me,” she says, indicating her fellow writer. “I moved to North London, he moved to North London. I moved back to Scotland and he came back to Scotland.”

Greenhorn tells a different story in response: “We worked together with 7/84 on a play which Zinnie (Harris, associate director at the Traverse) directed and co-wrote with Isabel Wright. When I was doing that I met my wife and then had to go down to London for a bit, which just happened to be where you were and you insisted on attending the birth of my children.” Turning to The Skinny, he continues: “My wife had so little faith in my competence as a birthing partner she asked Rona to come too.”

Aside from aspersions cast over who has inserted themselves too much into the other’s personal life, he adds:. “It’s quite nice actually, with all that added to our relationship, to come back and work together again. It was quite a tentative working relation and now…”

“...We’re far too rude to each other,” Munro finishes. The strength of their working relationship is clear, and to witness the two sparring back and forth in the rehearsal room, laughing and joking during interviews in their lunch break, provides quite an image. “Much to the horror of some of the actors,” Greenhorn jokes. 

Themes of Tracks of the Winter Bear

A double bill, Tracks of the Winter Bear wasn’t co-written, but there were themes and ground rules in place, including winter, Edinburgh and, most notably, a bear. “I put that on the table up front: 'I’m going to have a bear, deal with it,'” says Munro, although both refuse to give more information about their respective bears for fear of spoilers.  

The plays themselves are, in Munro’s words, “about dealing with a stage in your life where you’ve lost a lot, and how you move on, or realising that’s a stage in your life and asking how are you living? They’re about crises. We found that thematically and emotionally they matched more than we anticipated, and we also tried to make it like one narrative, so even though they’re stylistically very different the narrative that begins in one ends in the other.” 

“We knew, with what we were looking at thematically, that there would be overlaps,” Greenhorn adds. “We’re dealing with characters who are slightly older, who are our age essentially, who are facing crises in their lives, and once we knew that there was that parallel, we knew that stylistic differences wouldn’t create an issue because they were both addressing the same kind of territories.”

“Your character is a lot younger though, isn’t she?” Munro asks, leading Greenhorn to admit what most writers hide: “All my characters are basically me, so she can’t be that much younger.”

Munro and Greenhorn on writing for an all-female cast

Aside from a bear, one thing audiences can be guaranteed to see is an all-female cast of fantastic actress. “It was a no-brainer,” Munro says, following Greenhorn's realisation that he was “writing a love story and I had the thought that it could be two women.” Both writers lament the lack of great roles for female actors, especially parts for older Scottish women, and both have worked to change that throughout their careers. “It’s an opportunity, not an obligation,” says Munro. 

With a fantastic female ensemble, “sprinkles of snow and mistletoe” and a slightly suspicious big bear (“I can’t remember what we’re not supposed to say,” says Greenhorn before Munro again promises, “You will definitely see a bear”), Tracks of the Winter Bear sounds like a show not to be missed. 

“It’s got a touch of the Jimmy Stewart,” Greenhorn says after the recorder is turned off.

“Oh that’s good,” says Munro, “you should write that down.”

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More from Theatre:

 Sally Messham on bringing Tipping the Velvet to life

 The Choir sees Paul Higgins finding humour in darkness

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Tracks of the Winter Bear, Traverse Theatre, 9-24 December, 7:30pm, prices vary.