THE Napier Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands: The Musical may not have the same ring to it as Miss Saigon or Cats.
But as an idea that is coming from renowned theatre producer Sir Cameron Mackintosh's own Highland backyard, it should not be immediately dismissed. It is also one which has a lot of dramatic material on which to draw.
The publication of the Napier Commission's 4000 page report led to the Crofters Act of 1886 which gave Scotland the crofting system which survives today. Now the Napier is at the heart of plans being prepared by the Mallaig Learning Centre of Lochaber College to help celebrate the Highland Year of Culture 2007.
It also will also mark the expected granting of full university status in that year by the University of the Highlands and Islands.
A musical underpinned by the more significant project of making the Napier Commission's volumes available online for the first time is the ambition.
The musical is to be a bilingual community-led ceilidhplay centred on the visit of the Napier Commission to Arisaig. It will be one of many community-based events across the Highlands and Islands in 2007.
According to Dr Iain Fraser Grigor, the Morar-based historian who chairs at the Mallaig centre: "The bulk of the text will comprise actual testimony given to the commission in Arisaig and other locations in the Lochaber area, along with readings from the private journals of the Astley family. They owned Arisaig House but were cursed. The curse was that not one of them would survive to inherit the estate. None did."
A writer and a musical director are already interested in the project. Dr Grigor would not comment on whether an approach had been made to Sir Cameron, whose estate is on the nearby shores of Loch Nevis.
"All I would say is that it is well known that he lives locally, as is his great attachment to the area."
On May 8, 1883, Angus Stewart, a crofter in the Braes area of Skye, was the first person called to give evidence before the Napier Commission.
But before he dared do so, he said: "I want the assurance that I will not be evicted, for I cannot bear evidence to the distress of my people without bearing evidence to the oppression and high handedness of the landlord and his factor."
Lord Napier persuaded Lord Macdonald's factor, who was present, to give that assurance.
The Napier Commission's five-volume report also gave future historians a truly invaluable insight into the lives of ordinary Highland people in the nineteenth century.
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