Creatively daring love letter from actor Alan Cumming to Scotland's national poet Robert Burns uses dance, 'magic' and new insights in full-on show Burn

REVIEW: Burn

Eden Court, Inverness

4 stars

In the poster for Alan Cumming’s solo performance Burn, he stands looking out over misty mountain tops as Robert Burns.

Burn confidently aims for new perspectives on the man and his life.

And Alan Cumming looks over what we know about the writer with new eyes sharpened by his research into academic studies and a close reading of Burns’ own letters which the actor has said he found a revelation.

The result is a reboot of our understanding of the poet we used to know smiling out from shortbread tins and celebrated at cheesy Burns’ Suppers.

Using dance in large parts of the show, Cumming perhaps lacks the attack and pzazz of a professional dancer.

But that works perfectly to make you reconsider Burns, a man who is so deft and sure-footed in the realm of words, but in the real world? Haunted by poverty, wrestling with a touching, borderline-toxic besottedness with women and desperate for success in life, Burns is seen battling with depression that might today see him diagnosed as bipolar. An academic has revealed his most creative periods may match apparently manic episodes.

Cumming’s sometimes almost hesitant dance moves make Burns appear vulnerable, endearing – and funny.

And the choreography, from the start – infused with Highland dance steps and positions – suggests a man embracing his culture, curving his arms out with showy flourishes to explore the world around him, but often drawing them back to clutch his hands in front of him in almost defensive, ‘confident’ poses.

If there’s one thing Burn does by casting the national treasure as the national bard, it is imprinting what we know about Alan Cumming onto Robert Burns.

Easy humour, a fearlessness and honesty are just some of the things shared by both Scots and that energise Burn itself.

In the production, a playfulness in moments such as dangling shoes to represent some of Burns’ love interests, or the apparent magic of the writer’s special pen (no spoilers here!) – having ‘illusion consultant’ Kevin Quantum on the creative team – beautifully offsets the wordy barrage of the play itself and the almost information overload of using the backdrop to constantly flag up the passing years, the locations of Burns’ life and words from his quoted poems and letters.

See this show and you will never think of Robert Burns in the same way again.

Burn genuinely sparks a new fire to get to know the real man better.

And Alan Cumming may have got his wish and danced Scotland's poet and touchstone off the top of that shortbread tin forever. MC

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