Coming to Eden Court in Inverness for three nights, Burn sees Scottish actor Alan Cumming dance the life of Robert Burns to give a new perspective on the national bard we all think we know ...
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ACTOR Alan Cumming admits he became “completely obsessed” with what it must have been like to be Robert Burns.
Having debuted in Burn during the Edinburgh Festival, Alan is about to take on the role of the bard again in Burn at Eden Court on Thursday (Sept 8) till Saturday – using his whole body to express the character in the solo dance piece he created with choreographer Steven Hoggett. In his late 50s, Alan has revealed dancing the role has pushed him to his physical limits.
But perhaps like Burns, who is quoted saying ‘And still my motto is – I dare’, Alan too continues to test himself, to try new things and to keep on moving forward.
The show has won some amazing reviews – 'Cumming's portrayal of Burns is electric' says Theatre Scotland. The Herald gushed 'Hugely clever, complex endeavour where themes criss-cross like soul-searching tartan' – 'Awesome to behold', says the theatre industry's bible, The Stage.
You might now be asking yourelf, 'Can I miss what promises to be one of the most exciting performances Eden Court will stage this year?' Probably not, with Alan Cumming a performer who, throughout his career, has searched relentlessly for roles to stretch himself with – consistently producing reliably can't-miss theatre.
Winner of Tony, Olivier, Scottish BAFTA and CATS awards and a recipient of multiple Grammy, Golden Globe and Emmy nominations, Alan Cumming is Scotland's much-loved star of stage and screen and with this show makes his solo dance theatre debut with Burn, though he has danced before – in Cabaret, for example.
"I have danced before, but I have to work really hard on this," he admitted.
"I’ve worked with some really great choreographers in plays and stuff, but this is a while different thing."
He is performing, it sounds like, very much on his own terms: "I’m not very good at doing the same as everybody else, but luckily I don’t have to do the same as everybody else in this – I just need to dance like me!"
Burn is the National Theatre of Scotland’s third transatlantic collaboration with Alan, following his performances as Dionysus in The Bacchae (2007 Edinburgh International Festival, Scottish tour, London’s Lyric Hammersmith and The Lincoln Center Festival, New York) and as Macbeth, which premiered at Tramway, Glasgow in 2012 and was presented on Broadway the following year.
But he returns to Scotland and the stage frequently – in shows such as Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age (2021), Club Cumming (2018) and Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs (2016), all at Edinburgh International Festival.
The TV series where he appeared travelling round Scotland in a campervan with Miriam Margolyes, was a huge hit, the two making compulsive viewing in Miriam And Alan: Lost In Scotland for Channel 4 – and Alan is about to reprise the experience.
He has also just appeared in the new Scottish drama documentary My Old School which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where he speaks the actual words of Brandon Lee, the wannabe doctor who pretended he was much younger to return to school and try to his Scottish high school to get the results he needed, fooling a lot of people for longer than you might think.
Then there's the game show that has also taken him back to Scotland ...
"I’m in a car in transit – with beautiful rolling hills in the Cairngorms," he reveals talking about Burn and everything he has been taking part in this year.
"I’ve been up North, and it is just stunning," Alan says with feeling.
"I just went to Grantown on Spey for the night – I didn’t get as far as Inversneckie! I was there in April.
"I'm working on a weird psychological game show called The Traitors – I am doing the American version and we are also shooting the British version with Claudia Winkelman and I’m swanning round the castle there," he revealed.
Like Burns, Alan is a writer.
There are six books now, including the best-selling memoir Not My Father’s Son and the recently released Baggage – the paperback edition was out in June.
But it is maybe having written that Alan really seems to have bonded with Robert Burns, the man and poet, and highlighting the important role his work plays in what we think of Scotland, ourselves and how we should live our lives as Scots.
"I’ve been fascinated by him for a long time and as I have got older the more I think that he defines us as Scottish people.
"Everything he says is about the values of Scottishness, so I don’t know any other countries that had [the equivalent] of a manual of Scottishness in their national bard.
"The more I started to delve, I found out things that were revelatory – even things like, when I read the letters, he doesn’t write in Scot. He speaks in English.
"We are so used to hearing him in Scots that I had always imagined that is how he spoke in real life.
"But that was an artistic and sociological decision he took to write in Scots, so that is fascinating. And then it was like seeing a whole new person."
Looking back with 21st century eyes, you find Robert Burns can appear a bit of a rock star figure of his time. Does Alan agree?
"He was like a rock star but he didn’t live like one," Alan states. "He very quickly became a huge sensation."
But Alan pointed out fame brought troubles.
"Quite early on he talks about how worried he is in his letters about the fame that might happen to him, and when he gets into the period of his depression, he had anxiety about property – and how his kids were going to survive.
"So it is a very different life to the kind of lifestyle we associate with a rock star."
The physical test ahead in the show means Alan has to prepare his body before he goes onstage at the start of each performance.
He laughs: "Physically, like an old car I have to crank up!
"The show is made up of different chapters, different themes – different headings, almost like a cabaret in fact.
"Lots of things are connected in one story, and it is kind of chronological, but we also talk about other bits of his life, in general.
"Sometimes I speak quite a lot and there are other times when I don’t speak at all.
"I have to get into that headspace.
"He is a very mercurial person and that is what is exciting and, I guess, in a way, the idea of performing it this way."
Maybe it is not surprising Alan says he doesn't regret things – he is constantly moving forward with contrasting projects. Maybe he recognises something of the Burns he just described as 'mercurial' in himself.
“I really don’t believe in regrets.
“I feel if you are happy with who you are, then life is like a big game of Jenga, you would only be pulling out a piece making everything fall apart.
“Regrets to me are things that are unresolved – and there are things I wish I hadn’t done – but I am at peace with that. I have resolved them.
“And I don’t have a bucket list, I think ‘Just go and do it!’.
“If you must do something before you die, just do it – you might die tomorrow!
“I do kind of grab life by the balls!”
Alan addedL "I suppose I need to do these challenging things in my life every now and again, I see a pattern in my life and I do these things that are either politically or emotionally, incredibly challenging.
"I think that keeps you vibrant as an artist and as a person, and it’s personal.
"I do recognise it as something – sometimes I wish I didn’t, when I have crazy ideas or I put things out to the universe and things happen and I manifest them – and they are even more weird than I intended!
After Burn and filming the next TV series season with Miriam – two episodes in Scotland – then more in New York where Alan lives most of the time, he will appear in a play as ... Sigmund Freud.
“Then, I’ll take a break!”
He sounds almost certain about that.
Burn is at Eden Court from Thursday, September 8 to Saturday, September 10. Tickets: https://eden-court.co.uk/event/burn
