An intimate, unique performance examining Robert Burns’s life and work which plucks at the heartstrings. Rating
Unmissable!
Ascending the stairs to the small room where the performance is held, fragments of Burns’s poetry and interviews with researchers about his life emanate from hidden speakers. The performance is already beginning.
I actually wanted to see this show at last year’s Fringe or its brief run at the Georgian House earlier this year but each time it was sold out – and it was certainly worth the wait. On arrival in the performance space, the first thing that strikes one is the long, white, sinuous table laid with candelabras, tureens, crystal-cut tumblers, decanters and silverware all whitewashed: strange and familiar at the same time. The audience sits around this table set for 20 as James Clements (Burns) and Lisa Rigby (original music and vocalist) weave in and around them, unless, like me and several others, you’re perched on a stool against the wall like some sort of silent footman. But there’s not a bad seat in the house and even we wallflowers get visits from the great man throughout.
The striking white table holds secrets and wonders which unfold throughout the show, giving us intimate glimpses into Burns’s short yet eventful life as farmer, poet, songwriter, would-be slave overseer, raconteur, “gold-plated shagger” (he fathered at least twelve children with four women) and tax collector. Clements, in collaboration with researchers at the National Trust for Scotland, has unearthed a treasure trove of material from Burns’s private letters and other historical research to illuminate this contradictory icon of Scottish life and the Scots language.
Through quotes from Burns’s poetry, music and letters, Clements and vocalist Rigby build a portrait of a man who is larger than life, almost certainly the most famous Scot of all time and definitely the most influential, whose eventual fame one might not have guessed from his childhood as a tenant farmer. Context is added through recorded interviews. The immediacy and intimacy of the live performance contrasts beautifully with the disembodied archival material, though at times the recordings are a bit difficult to make out when competing with Rigby’s music.
Clements and Rigby’s stage presence is magnetic, drawing the eye and involving the audience in the performance in a gentle yet compelling way. Even without Jenny Booth and Elle Taylor’s compelling set and lighting design this would be a performance worth watching – but the white table, with its many atmospheric shifts through unexpected, delightful props and evocative shifts in the light, is what really elevates this to an otherworldly experience.
All around the world people celebrate Burns Night suppers every year, reading Burns’s poetry, lustily declaiming the ‘Address to a Haggis’, feasting, toasting and singing that most famous of odes to long-remembered friendships. Yet this unique, magical Burns celebration is surely an occasion to remember.
Writer and Performer: James Clements
Director: Cora Bissett
Original Music, Arrangements and Vocals: Lisa Rigby
Music and Vocals: Ray Aggs
Set and Costume Designer: Jenny Booth
Lighting Designer: Elle Taylor
Sound Designer: Garry Boyle
Production Manager: Lee Davis
Associate Lighting Designer/Assistant Stage Manager: Viola Fowler
The Burns Project runs at the Royal Lyceum Theatre until Sunday 5 July.
