BILLY Connolly famously called inner city schemes “deserts wi’ windaes” and for Clydebank-born Raymond Wilson the description resonates.
“Growing up, I remember feeling it wasn’t colourful enough and there wasn’t enough green space,” said Wilson, who escaped to the local library to read about nature when he couldn’t experience it.
That led him to study earth science at university, then jobs in environment education before winning a scholarship for a masters in acting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Now he has written and is acting in a play at the Fringe all about the importance of green spaces which has won four-star reviews across the board and is part of the Made in Scotland showcase.
Hope Your Flowers Bloom is semi-autobiographical and is a light-hearted exploration of working-class access to nature, the relationship between masculinity and the natural world, and how that relates to men’s relationship with women.
“I wanted to look at the idea men treat nature and women as this thing to be owned and controlled,” said Wilson. “The character is a working-class male trying to escape the grey, inner city Glasgow environment. He wants to get out of the city because he feels trapped there and latches on to a woman who lives in a campervan.
“He gets obsessed with the idea that if he gets with this woman he can escape into nature and the story follows their adventures as he tries to impress her in this anxious, unhealthy way.”
Now that Wilson has grown up, he’s realised that people living in Scotland actually have better access to nature than many others across the UK but points out that it can still be difficult to access, particularly for marginalised groups.
“Whether you are marginalised economically, or through disability or race you don’t really feel these spaces are for you,” he said. “It’s about feeling a part of these areas and how much they are upkept as well. You get leafy green areas in more well-off areas in Scotland but there is such a clear difference between how much they are kept up and the green spaces in more working-class inner city areas.
“Growing up in Clydebank, green spaces weren’t nice utopian safe places. They were always seen as quite unsafe. We were told not to go into the park because it wasn’t kept up well, things were broken and that was where the 'junkies' hung out so they were never inviting places. That is to do with how much these places are maintained and focused on compared with the other parks.”
Luckily his parents noticed Wilson’s interest in nature and made the effort to take him to green spaces where possible as well as to the local library where he could learn about their ecology and biology.
“Even when you can’t get physical access there are other ways to go about it but that is now also being taken away,” said Wilson referring to cuts in library funding.
He acknowledges that having access to nature isn’t a panacea for all ills but believes strongly that it can help.
“There are all sort of studies that show the benefits of being in nature for your health, creativity and mindset,” Wilson pointed out. “The problems are deeper than not having a park but just being around nature and being able to sit outside and being exposed to this softer, slower version of the world is bound to help.
“Being in the natural world does encourage us to adapt to it rather than adapt it to us and I think that’s where masculinity comes in because it allows a softer, more observant masculinity than a forceful, rigid one.”
He added: “It’s a fun show but there are things to think about as well. Some people like the nature descriptions, some like the content about the Scottish working class and others like the content about masculinity. It’s nice if people can latch on to different things.”
I Hope Your Flowers Bloom is at the Scottish Storytelling Centre until August 27.
