At the age of 57, Alan Cumming hinted that a solo dance theatre debut could be a challenge but there’s no need for worry.
The power of movement, choreography and music is a boon to the production. Clocking in at around 50 minutes on a hot afternoon in Edinburgh, we are swept into a rain-sodden Scotia. Immediately Burn sheds the shortbread tin and haggis image of Rabbie by bringing the kick of his Scots language to life.
Cumming is a revelation in the role, playing a much younger man. He manages to deliver a sense of his early years without losing an inch of credibility. It’s a humorous and dark production that tackles difficult subjects such as the poet’s celebrity, womanising, poverty, hypochondria and depression. His life with many women is revealed through letters and represented by colourful swinging shoes. An initial lean towards poetry was inspired by his lusts and used as a seduction technique, this is something the production draws much attention to.
There are of course more optimistic explosions of life celebrated through those momentous flourishes of Scots language and dialect which Cummings revels in while drawing us closer to ‘The man o’ independent mind’. When we think the show is over, Cummings dressed in black appears in front of the red curtain. With a glass of whiskey in hand, he delivers a few bars from Auld Lange Syne.
It’s a genuinely moving moment and a fitting reminder that art transcends this very human and contradictory character.
Burn has now finished its Festival run.
