Campbell of Kilmohr

A Play in One Act

by J. A. Ferguson
Introduced by David Goldie

Published in: PDF

J. A. Ferguson’s one-act play Campbell of Kilmohr, set during the bloody aftermath of the battle of Culloden, was first performed in an amateur production by the Auchinblae Dramatic Club in September 1913, but came to wider notice on its first professional production in Glasgow’s Royalty Theatre on 23 March 1914. The play was an immediate success and went on to become one of Scotland’s most frequently performed plays in the twentieth century.

Written on the eve of the First World War, Campbell of Kilmohr revolves around themes of loyalty, sacrifice, and betrayal, the power of the State and the potential for the corruption of that power. These are ideas that exercised Ferguson throughout his writing career, and which continue to hold a powerful resonance for our own times.

Cover image: ‘Disbanded’ – oil on canvas, 1877, by John Pettie (1839–1893)
Reproduced by kind permission of Dundee Art Galleries and Museums.