SCOTS, the mither tongue has aye been a challenge. For me, at home, it was banned as slovenly speech and unbecoming of a future scholar.
Ironically, the beauty of Robert Burns, a fellow Ayrshire man, was driven doon ma thrapple annually by the very fowk who belted ma language oot o me.
Instead, I wrapped my lugs round the working-class uncouthness language o the terraces and loved it.
Common Tongue is all about imperfect Scots – not just the richness of the language, but its power. Originally performed in 2024 by Cumbernauld’s Olivia Caw, written and directed by Fraser Scott, it tells the story of Bonnie, a confused young lassie, unsure what to say, how to say it, but she’s going to tell it the way it is regardless, sae lend her yer lugs.
When I catch up with both Scott and Caw, Scott explains the premise: “Bonnie is in a bit of trouble, trying to understand how she got there. She unpicks her journey, the language she uses, how that’s changed and shifted as she’s grown up and moved away from home. How all those experiences have impacted.”
The impact upon Caw of returning was infectious: “I’m buzzing. We get to give to people something that’s special to us and then hopefully their response is special to them.”
It’s special to both, as Scott says: “Olivia’s symbiotic with the piece. It’s exciting to be able to develop new writing alongside the actor. I can text Olivia and ask, what do you think about this? To be able to have that relationship is beneficial as the show has evolved.”
The evolution in a living, breathing theatrical entity continues as Caw explores: “We know how lucky we are to have longevity, another opportunity to explore Bonnie as a character, deep diving, break it down and put it back together again.
“The reason it’s developed is my understanding and ability to translate better than last year in a way that lands with folk without taking too much away.”
Scott agrees. “We’ve both come into it with a really strong sense of what the show is. When we first put it up last year, there were all these unknowns – what is the thing going to be when it’s with an audience? Having had that experience, a year away from it, it has been rare to come into this knowing exactly what kind of show we want, clear about the story we’re telling: it feels really solid.”
Clarity is critical as they recognise the pressure of the language. “One of the things we’ve explored is never prescribing or preaching,” Caw explains.
Scott goes further. “I didn’t want to write a show that was the gatekeeper. It’s about understanding that there’s not a right or wrong way of speaking Scots – it’s not slang, not dialect, it’s part of a rich language that is building strength.”
And he sounds a warning: “We can push people away, if we try and be strict about how language is used. I think everyone goes on a journey with the way that they speak; only human nature shifts and changes. I don’t think it makes you any less or more if you use specific words in specific contexts.”
Caw is totally in agreement and states: “The minute you start telling someone how or how not to speak, it really inhibits everything: your confidence, understanding of the world, ways of communicating with other people. It comes of prejudice – whether it’s Scots, refugees – from a place of not belonging. Prejudice can mean anything from uneducated to angry.”
Contextually, the chance to visit new parts of the country cements that connection, according to Caw: “The audience feel an active part of Bonnie’s journey. I’m excited to see what that conversation looks like in all these different parts of Scotland that have their own nuances and accents. One of the best things about Scots and Scottish people is the patter. It’s keeping the conversation going.”
It’s a conversation Scott recognises in the current theatrical landscape: “There are loads of grassroots, emerging theatre companies writing plays in Scots even if they don’t say that. The shift that needs to happen is more of a claiming of it and an acknowledgement that it’s the people around you, how they speak. The hope is that that then ripples through on to bigger stages, but all these things take time.”
For Caw, there’s more evidence of languages being reclaimed: “What I find important is cracking the code switching. I can do an English accent if you need to understand me, but it’s about claiming that. I’m not going to code switch because there’s an ignorance in the room about how I should be presenting myself.
“When we see bands like Kneecap and the reclamation of languages that have been lost, it’s a light of positivity in a time when people feel disillusioned and lost, wanting community back.”
As for Scotland’s artistic community, while Scott has plenty of developing work hoping “to make it to a stage” sometime in the future, Caw is more sanguine about recent developments, noting that “losing River City will be a big loss”, but with “three BBC Scotland-commissioned TV shows coming out, which are all – in theory – going to be heavy Scots”.
“Some initiatives are great in theory, but it cannae just be for a day. I’d love to be working more in Scottish theatre, and I really hope that these things that are coming up on BBC Scotland are going to be portrayed by real Scottish actors that live in Scotland,” she adds.
Caw’s optimism is tinged with realism as she notes too that, “for actors, there is a lack of comfiness in Scotland, a lack of ongoing work.”
So, doing Common Tongue will hopefully be “opening doors. But there’s a lot of lip service paid in terms of the work that’s being done”.
And with that, she jokes: “That’ll be Fraser looking through Spotlight going, ‘next time’.” For Common Tongue, next time is very soon …
Common Tongue, with JG Producing in association with the Ayr Gaiety, is on tour until October 18 across Scotland
