Anna Burnside reviews an impressive celebration of Robert Burns.
Is it possible to have a Burns supper without haggis? James Clements’ Fringe hit, The Burns Project, has all the elements of January 25 bar the steaming entrails.
A tiny audience sits around a wiggly dining table as writer and star Clements embodies the Bard and gives his biography, CV, relationship history, bibliography and discography with honourable mentions of the less fragrant chapters of his story rolled up in less time than it takes some to perform Tam O’Shanter.
Or maybe, in the wrong hands, it just feels like that.
Clements is a compelling Burns, casting his roguish eye over the ladies round the table, slumping into self-pity when faced with mounting bills and letters from pregnant paramours.
To flesh out his story, musician Lisa Rigby plays her own arrangements of his songs on a variety of instruments, sometimes in character, other times as background. There is even some spirited dancing.
The all-white table, set for dinner, works hard. A chasm in the middle lights up at key moments. At one point Clements guides a tiny boat - constructed from a sauce boat and spoon - along its precarious route.
There are notes and manuscripts hidden within the folded napkins and billets doux scrolled on undercrackers in a casserole dish.
Director Cora Bissett does a great job of making the theatrical most of a show that could, in lesser hands, have been a radio play. Clements, especially when he’s sweaty and sorry for himself, puts Burns in context and reminds us why he’s the rogue’s rogue, the potential slaver that his left-wing supporters forgive and the only poet who gets his own day in the Scottish calendar.
The Burns Project was seen at the Burns Cottage Museum on November 29, 2025. It’s tour has concluded.
Photo by Kat Gollock.
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