Performing Robert Burns

This pioneering book explores varieties of performance – and their contexts – of Burns’s texts, specifically in song, in his local theatre and in public ceremonies or dramatisations of his work. It discusses how aspects of such performances mediate versions of ‘Robert Burns’. It begins by paying close attention to how editors shape perceptions of Burns and his work by providing versions and selections of texts which become the ‘script’ through which performance of ‘Robert Burns’ is based. Eminent experts address how Burns has become both subject and object of performance since his death, through celebratory events like Burns Suppers or public procession, or as a dramatic theme on stage and screen. They explore popular representation of him and his work in music hall, pantomime, public ceremonial and folk song. The collection complements existing writing about Burns, offering deep insights into ways he provides matter for – and himself become material for – performance. It concludes with detailed exploration involving two leading modern interpreters, Jean Redpath and Sheena Wellington, of the performance of Burns’s songs, so complementing theoretical and historical study with insights derived from the work of such performers.