UNPRECEDENTED access to Robert Burns’s private letters and recently digitised archival material has resulted in an intriguing show about the poet.
Despite the subject matter, theatre-maker James Clements is quick to point out that it’s not a historical play but very much relates to questions facing Scots today, such as the country’s political status and Scottish identity.
And the man portrayed is not the “biscuit tin Burns” that is often presented, according to Clements.
The play contains facts about Burns and quotes from the poet that are less widely known and which Clements believes gives a fuller picture of the man.
He began his research a year ago after the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) digitised their Burns archive so it could be accessed online by people all over the world.
Clements, who has had a lifelong fascination with Burns, realised it could be used to make a powerful new piece of theatre, as well as highlight some of the NTS’s historic buildings.
Directed by award-winning Cora Bissett and featuring a set “full of surprises”, The Burns Project opens in Edinburgh’s stunning Georgian House this weekend before touring later in the year.
The idea is not only to help people to get to know Robert Burns better but also to make NTS properties and the NTS Burns archive more accessible.
Clements has used the archive and rarely seen writings to conjure a complex, irreverent and honest portrait of Scotland’s National Bard.
Seeking to refresh and expand on existing representations of the poet, The Burns Project portrays a man full of complexities and contradictions, capable of both deep love and callousness, of great progressiveness and political inconsistencies. It is a story of a man with high ideals, who sometimes fell short of them, with layers of intrigue and mystery.
Even though he died more than 200 years ago, Clements believes Burns is still very relevant to issues facing Scottish society today.
“I think there’s still a lot of questions that my generation of Scottish men are grappling with that Burns grappled with,” he said.
“Then I think there’s also ongoing questions around Scotland’s political status, what self-determination means, what a Scottish identity is. We talk about Scottish identity, but it’s such a blanket term for something that’s so wildly nuanced.”
Clements said the archive shows that Burns expressed different views at different times about Scottish independence, the rights of women, the rights of men and how the class system functions.
“He was asking these questions 230 years ago and we’re still trying to answer them now,” he said. “And he is so embedded in our culture, how better to explore them than through someone who already forms so much of our sense of self?”
He is delighted the National Trust for Scotland has supported the project and agreed for it to be staged in their properties.
“It’s really exciting to be performing it in these historic buildings, opening them up in hopefully new and dynamic ways to people in Scotland – literally welcoming them in, but also allowing us to put on a really political and really provocative piece,” he said.
“Essentially, you’re sitting at a Burns supper table with Burns over an hour, and we really take you on a journey through his through his life, his contradictions and his highs and lows.
“It’s not your biscuit tin Burns. It’s pretty provocative because, you know, like all of us, he contained contradictions and like all of us, he made mistakes.”
Burns is often regarded as a working-class hero but Clements believes that does not further understanding of the man.
“That actually does him a disservice and does us a disservice,” he said. “It’s much more useful to look at him as a person who had
exceptional talent in the context of his class, his gender, his time, and that’s the kind of story that I’ve been drawn to. I think that’s the show he deserves.”
The Burns Project is at The Georgian House, Edinburgh, from August 2-16 (not 7 or 14)
