When Brandane lived in Glasgow he became deeply involved in the city's theatrical life.
He renewed his acquaintance with A. W. Yuill and together they pushed the cause for a native Scottish drama and began writing for the Scottish National Players.
His first one act play (with Yuill), Glenforsa (1921), portrays a spirited and drunken quarrel between two friends, Glenforsa and Oskamull, the gambling away of Glenforsa's Mull properties and the romantic entanglement of the two men with two sisters.
This was followed by another one act play The Change House.
In 1922, when he was 53 years old, he became a founder member of the Scottish National Players and in effect their in-house dramatist since almost all of his plays were performed by them.
In 1926 Tyrone Guthrie directed Brandane's one act comedy masterpiece Rory Aforesaid with its wily elderly protagonist.
This was followed by the grim and ironic one act The Happy War (1928) set in war-torn France, then the historical one act The Spanish Galleon(1932) (again co-authored with Yuill) which deals with the sinking of the galleon in Tobermory Bay.
His final play, The Man of Uz (1938), is a verse drama of the suffering of Job.

John Brandane (the pen name for Dr John MacIntyre) was arguably Scotland's best known resident dramatist in the 1920s before the emergence of that other great doctor/dramatist James Bridie (O. H. Mavor).
He was born in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute on 14th August, 1869.
His family moved to the Bridgeton area of Glasgow and as a boy he worked in a Glasgow cotton mill.
Between the ages of 15 and 27 he was employed as a clerk in a warehouse.
During his latter years in the warehouse he took up the study of medicine at Glasgow University.
In 1901 he graduated and while specialising in surgery at Glasgow Royal Infirmary he met and became a friend of Bridie.
Since he had not taken a holiday for six years, for the sake of his health he obtained his first medical post in a rural practice on the Island of Mull and remained there until 1908.