REVIEW: Burn @ Edinburgh Festival ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

It opens with a rain-drenched stage and stormy sky. It is a portent of things to come.

Alan Cumming is the only actor in Burn and he gives an energetic performance. It gallops through Robert Burns’ life and works in one hour but it does a good job of showcasing his genius and presenting his life from poor farmer’s boy, through strutting young manhood, to maturity then infirmity (this is imaginatively portrayed with chairs sinking into the stage as Cumming leans on them).

The script is largely in Burns’ own words, which Cumming delivers with power and a sense of fun. The creators used Burns’ work but also his correspondence to shape the play and to understand the man better, rather than just as a historical literary figure with a reputation for womanising.

Burns’ desire to be a poet, his relationship to his wife and family, his affairs with multiple women, his griefs, and the necessity for him of securing patronage, are deftly, touchingly, and, sometimes, amusingly covered. Shoes drop from the rafters to represent the women he likes – a great piece of visual humour.

A galloping white horse appears on the backdrop of the stage. And at one point a gleaming, bright red sunset fills the theatre. The set has real visual power with Tim Lutkin’s lighting, and everything is complemented by the innovative and potent music by award-winning Anna Meredith.

The play is quite experimental in approach, but it’s not in any way alienating for that. The creative team behind this show have pulled together something special. Alan Cumming himself created it with Steven Hoggett – who also choreographed it with Vicki Manderson. There is dance woven through the performance, which is an interesting choice for the portrayal of a literary man but, actually, it is necessary and brilliant in this case. It puts us into the grip of Burns’ emotional states and it contributes to the humour, passion or sadness of a scene. For example, at one point Burns must impress local dignitaries, various lords and ladies, to promote his career, and Cumming shows him doing this with jigs rather than words, and you couldn’t do anything better to demonstrate the awkwardness of the business of self-promotion, particularly for an artist.