Tam’s tale as you’ve never seen it before

Jan 23 2009 by Alison Anderson, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

HOLD on to your hats – Gerry Mulgrew is in town with his take on Robert Burns’ colourful tale of Tam O’Shanter.

Tam’s tale is never dull as Burns’ hero over-imbibes at a market town hostelry and has to gallop for his life in his flight from the devils, witches and warlocks.

And never dull is Gerry Mulgrew, whose work, including that as artistic director of Communicado, pushes the boundaries of theatre in Scotland, often to great acclaim.

Perth Theatre audiences witnessed an example of this when it staged the award-winning Fergus Lamont, adapted by Mulgrew from Robin Jenkins’ novel.

For the past six months or so, Robert Burns has occupied a large part of Mulgrew’s life after he was invited by Perth Theatre to create a dramatisation of Tam O’Shanter fit for the Bard’s 250th anniversary.

From Friday, January 30, until February 14, Perth Theatre audiences can expect a highly visual, musical and comical imagining of Tam’s tale as never heard or seen, featuring very short skirts, the undead and several farmyard animals.

There is original music played live by three musicians and the weaving in of other Burns’ work as well as Mulgrew’s own Scottish verse.

Mulgrew explained that adapting Tam O’Shanter for the stage was a “great opportunity”, albeit a major exercise: “The fact that Tam O’Shanter is so well-known and is very fast made it difficult to dramatise. Yet it is a marvellous poem so we have evolved it into something else.”

“Everyone thinks they know Burns, and so did I. It was only when I started reading a lot of Burns that it realised how little I knew about the man and his work.”

“The 250th anniversary of his birth has really focussed the mind and encouraged people to come back to Burns, which is great.”

“For me it made me realise that Burns was a very sophisticated poet with a huge repertoire, and he did us a huge service by being such a great folk song collector. And he was the best playwright we never had!”

Music and song forms a large part of Mulgrew’s production. It has some 20 songs and some “rather wonderful grotesque comedy.”

“There is live music from the beginning to the end, played by Ally MacRae, Brian MacAlpine and Annie Grace, and there are two dancers. It’s a very choreographed piece, mostly in rhyme, and runs straight through for about 75 minutes or so.”

Tam O’Shanter, written in 1790, is considered to be one of Robert Burns’ finest poems, and is one of his longest – so Mulgrew knows the pressure is on for him and his team to do it 21st century justice.

“It has been astonishing to rediscover his passion, his political astuteness, his hilarious and deadly accurate satirising, as well as his wonderful dexterity with language, both Scots and English. I hope I can do him justice in the choral romp I am devising for Perth.”

For tickets call in to the box offices at Perth Theatre or Perth Concert Hall, telephone 01738 621031, or go online www.horsecross.co.uk