Communicado Theatre Company: Tam O’Shanter

Communicado Theatre Company: Tam O’Shanter

Communicado Theatre Company: Tam O’Shanter

A co-production with Horsecross Arts and Assembly Festival, Communicado Theatre Company’s Tam O’Shanter is a musical telling of the famous Robert Burns poem that details a drunken night of fun, laughter, martial strife and debauched supernatural encounters. A vibrant and physical production created and directed by Gerry Mulgrew, Communicado’s work keeps Burn’s poem as its core but also weaves in other themes.

The rhythm of the dialogue and text is beautifully constructed and integrated into the show; it beats away at its heart, in the early stages helping to control and pace the production, and at the end building the story to its frantic conclusion. The language can be slightly thick for a non-Scottish ear, but its beauty and emotion remained clear throughout, and the production soon settles into a rhythm that is only broken at those moments when it shifts brilliantly into a more modern – if tangential – take on Tam’s marriage.

With Tam O’Shanter, Communicado create a dynamic and layered story from the outset, depicting through music and dance the everyday lives of the poem’s characters. Establishing a world of humour and supernatural wonder, the brilliant ensemble of impressive Scottish actors performs with precision and vibrancy. The characterisations are what give the production its distinctiveness and draw the audience into Tam’s world.

The meta-theatrical structure helps give the production a multilayered effect: as the performers move in and out of the story they are able to comment on the narrative at the same time as they live it, their characterisations always working to ground us in whichever world we’re in. With over twenty songs packed into an hour-and-a-half production, the musical sections at times do become repetitive and somewhat redundant to the storytelling – but this happens rarely, and more often the songs are exciting and perfectly constructed set pieces that shine with playful energy. A unique and brilliantly executed mix of live music and theatre, Tam O’Shanter remains, throughout, a truly Scottish story.

www.communicadotheatre.co.uk