Exclusive:Robert Burns: 'Fitting' story of Scotland's bard told through eyes of three women who knew him best

The play is told from the perspective of three women in Robert Burns’ life

He is beloved as Scotland’s national poet, but is renowned for not only his verse and songs, but also his colourful personal life.

Now a new play told from the perspective of the three women who knew Robert Burns best has been created and is set to be performed this summer.

Toast Fae The Lassies will see three women closely connected to Burns - his mother, Agnes Broun, his wife Jean Armour and muse Clarinda - meet at his graveside in Dumfries.

The story takes place on January 25, 1797, the poet’s first birthday following his death six months earlier.

The cast of a Toast Fae the Lassies. | Pitlochry Theatre

The story describes how Ms Broun’s grief over her recently departed son is interrupted by an unexpected encounter with Ms Armour, Burns’s widow, and mother to his nine children. The two women, bound by a shared history and unresolved tensions, clash as they come face-to-face. Meanwhile, they come across Clarinda, Burns’s muse and soulmate, and the three recount their stories of the poet through songs, including My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose, Ae Fond Kiss, and Auld Lang Syne, A Toast Fae the Lassies.

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Playwright and director John Binnie, who co-wrote the play with composter Alyson Orr, said: “We are very excited to delve into the lives of the three women who were crucial to Rabbie Burns's life - his wife, his mother and his muse. These women are rarely given a voice, and the play is the perfect opportunity to explore the influences of Jean Armour, Agnes Broun and Clarinda. Featuring the most beautiful Burns' songs which are interwoven throughout the story, these timeless melodies will be sung in close harmony by the cast.

“The intimacy of Pitlochry Studio theatre is the perfect setting for this heart-warming and poignant tale and the play is a fitting tribute to Scotland’s most famous poet and the women in his life.”

John Binnie and Alyson Orr co-wrote the play. | Pitlochry Theatre

Mr Binnie added: “It’s looking at the three women and their lives, and thinking, how much did they contribute to the songs, and looking at the different versions of what actually happened. Those three women are mourning him, but also celebrating him and arguing about who influenced his work the most.”

Ms Orr, who also plays Ms Broun in the stage production at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, said the idea had come to her during the Covid lockdown.

She said: “I'd had this idea that it would be nice to have a show about Robert Burns, but from the female perspective, the women and his wife, rather than another story about Burns. I really love Burns’s music and I do a lot of harmony singing and arranging for voice and I thought it would be lovely to hear some of these songs in a play setting. So I got in touch with John and asked if that might be something he'd be interested in getting involved with it.”

A Toast Fae The Lassies will run at the Studio at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from August 29 until September 24.