Robert Burns - Icon Or Challenger?

Robert Burns - Icon or Challenger? is a topical dramatised satire, using the traditional setting of a Burns Supper. The occasion takes an unexpected turn when the New Labour guest speaker and adviser to the Prime Minister is overheard on the phone advising the PM that the way to retrieve his political position in Scotland is to perform a well-publicised Immortal Memory using Burns’ popularity to improve his image. The speaker being summoned away on urgent business by number 10, the address is taken over by an Angry Young Man who directs his fury at the way in which the reputation of Burns is used by those in power. He proceeds to examine Burns’ poetry suggesting that far from being a forerunner to a now successful, more equal Scotland the Bard should be seen as a challenger to what we have become. The satire continues when the politically correct Chairman, upset by this address, seeks to soothe the audience denied the usual nostalgic celebration of Burns and Scotland they might have expected.

The author has skilfully weaved together a series of speeches and sketches, using sometimes light, sometimes savage satire to explore the significance of Burns for our time and the challenge he presents to modern Scotland. This work appears at an apposite time when the United Kingdom has a new Scottish Prime Minister advocating Britishness and a First Minister who believes in independence. It invites the Scots to see themsels as Burns might see them.