Welsh's characters are not the educated, respectable, law-abiding working class figures found in much traditional fiction and drama, nor are his communities unified in their opposition to some faceless authority. Contemporary Scottish theatre is tuned into popular culture. It has passed from music hall to club land by way of cinema, dance, drugs, football fanzines, journalism, rap, stand-up comedy and television. Where the content went before the phrase, the phrase now goes before the content. It is significant that You'll Have Had Your Hole is set in a recording studio.
Welsh draws on club culture, mixing and sampling a variety of sounds.
The devil is in the detail, and the verve and vitality of local idioms, but there are large themes too - cruelty, revenge, cycles of violence, crime and punishment, responsibility, guilt. The language of violence and the violence of language come together in an art of suffering, but not in silence. Which brings us to the title of Welsh's new play. Uttered in posh Edinburgh parlance, the phrase 'You'll have had your tea' has a hidden meaning. It implies a poverty of spirit in a host's attitude to a guest.