Scotland's bloody past comes to life at castle extravaganza

Published on Sunday 31 May 2009 22:13

IT IS normally home to the pomp and circumstance of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. But this summer a dramatic stage performance will see some of the most important periods of Scottish history played out before the nation's most famous visitor attraction.

The Declaration of Arbroath, bloody battles such as Otterburn, Flodden and Culloden, and the Highland Clearances are due to feature in an hour-long show at Edinburgh Castle Esplanade at the end of next month.

The dramatic pageant, masterminded by theatre director Mark Murphy, is expected to be one of the highlights of Scotland's Year of Homecoming celebrations.

The show, entitled Aisling's Children after the central character who steers the audience through hundreds of years of Scottish history, will be the centrepiece of the world's biggest clan gathering, which is being held in Edinburgh during the last weekend in July.

Fort William-born actress and musician Annie Grace, best known for fronting folk band Iron Horse, has landed the lead role, while award-winning Edinburgh composer Jim Sutherland, is putting together a mini-orchestra of leading classical and traditional musicians to record the stirring soundtrack.

More than 200 performers will spend weeks rehearsing the script – written by veteran Fringe playwright Raymond Ross – in a warehouse at Leith Docks ahead of the show's one-off performance on 25 July before an expected 8,000-strong crowd.

Aisling's Children will revolve around a single family as a way of telling the story of Scotland's clans all the way back to the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320. Although much of the show is being kept under wraps until the night, The Scotsman can reveal that highlights will include dramatic depictions of a traditional croft being built and then destroyed, a giant tartan shawl being woven across the esplanade, and the voyages made by emigrating Scots across the Atlantic.

Mark Murphy is a veteran theatre director whose recent projects include overseeing the opening celebrations for Liverpool's European Capital of Culture tenure, and National Theatre of Scotland production Half Life, which was staged in an Argyllshire forest.

He said: "The show will have a number of large set-pieces but will also be interspersed with some very intimate moments. It's going to be a bit like looking into either end of a telescope.

"The production will be a large-scale event which we'll be starting at around 10pm so we can make best use of lighting effects at that time of night. It should be pretty spectacular."

All full pass-holders for The Gathering, which will be mainly based in Holyrood Park, will be entitled to take part in a parade up the Royal Mile before taking their seats to watch Aisling's Children unfold.

Jenny Gilmour, director of The Gathering said: "Aisling's Children will be a fantastic celebration of Scotland's culture, heritage and the people who honour this all over the world.

"We have put together a world-class production team whose expertise and enthusiasm will make this a stunning event and a fitting finale to The Gathering."