Made in Scotland: Burns, flying women and bullet in the teeth

A dozen shows were unveiled yesterday as part of the Scottish Government-funded Made in Scotland programme, including the amplified version of Robert Burns’ classic poem, outdoor aerial and dance performances in St Andrew Square, and Bullet Catch, a theatrical take on the famous magic trick.

Tam O’Shanter’s creator and director Gerry Mulgrew, a Scottish theatre veteran, called it “a romp through Burns”. “It’s primarily the story of Tam O’Shanter but it’s amplified by being put in a Burnsian context. It’s an exploded version.”

Burns as a poet has typically taken a minor platform at the Fringe, though biographical shows have sometimes scored successes. But the new production features about 20 poems and songs, among them The Jolly Beggars, or Love and Liberty, which Mr Mulgrew called the closest the poet had ever come to writing a play or opera.

The production will be performed at one of the Fringe’s main venues, the Assembly Hall. “There’s a risk of doing Burns at any time, day or night, in the theatre,” he said. “Everyone has their opinion as to what it is, what he is, how it should be done. It’s quite a punk interpretation, there are some non-traditional elements. The music’s great, we go back to the original tunes. The hope is that international audiences will like it.”

The Made in Scotland scheme, launched in 2009, draws on the Scottish Government’s Expo Fund, supporting Scottish work across Edinburgh’s festivals with about £2 million a year.

Major successes from past years range from 2010’s Roadkill, a searing drama of sex trafficking, to last summer’s award-winning The Monster in the Hall. Made in Scotland productions have toured to 18 countries, from Australia to France.

The 12 chosen, from 56 productions that bid for backing, include three children’s shows. Leaving Limbo Landing choreographer Caroline Bowditch called the aerial dance production an “outdoor spectacular”, with two scaffold towers, an aerial rig, a wall of water, and six performers from Italy, Latvia, Australia and Scotland. It centres on the choices people make to leave or stay, she said.

In Bullet Catch, playwright and actor Rob Drummond stages a theatrical version of the classic trick of catching a bullet, fired by a member of the audience, between his teeth.

Culture secretary Fiona Hyslop said it was a chance to celebrate the “fantastic range and breadth of Scottish art”. “We can take pride in our homegrown talent and the contribution that it makes.”

Creative Scotland chief executive Andrew Dixon said: “We are celebrating Edinburgh’s role as a showcase city and the place we can show off the best of our work to visitors at the Festival.”