25 Aug 2025

The Burns Project

The Burns Project was performed at the Georgian House during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025. | Image: Kat Pollock

Following its sold-out run at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe, The Burns Project is going on tour to share this enlightening story of Burns with new audiences.

The Trust’s recent collaboration with theatremaker James Clements created The Burns Project: an interactive theatrical production inspired by the life and works of Robert Burns.

Using the Robert Burns Collection to examine the Bard’s letters, poems and personal items, Clements worked with award-winning director Cora Bissett and musician Lisa Rigby to delve into the man behind the famous works, bringing the story of Robert Burns to life.

With a limited run of 13 Fringe performances from 2–16 August at the Georgian House, the production was intentionally intimate, staged like a Burns Supper around a dining table. All 21 tickets for each performance sold out.

The show became one of the highlights of the festival and achieved great reviews and media coverage, including Broadway World, The Herald, Fest Magazine, The Scotsman, The Guardian, The National and The Sunday Post.

The Guardian gave it four stars and said that it portrayed Burns in ’all his glory and contradictions’. The Scotsman also gave the show four stars and said that the performance was a ’Burns Supper with a difference as the Bard is the guest of honour, here to give us a potted but irresistibly lyrical life story carved from the pages of his own writing’.

The Herald featured the show in its 10 best performances of the Fringe and said that it was ’an immaculately designed, smartly staged piece that offers up a portrait of a complex, at times, flawed man’.

Talking about the Fringe run, Clements said: ’Having the opportunity to connect with hundreds of people in the Georgian House, in so intimate and personal a format, was one of the greatest creative experiences of my life.’

Quote

“I’m so proud of the complex, challenging piece of theatre we created, and I was thrilled by the response, critically and from our audiences.”

James Clements

Theatremaker

The acclaimed production will now tour Scotland with three further performances at Trust places, bringing this special retelling of Burns’s life to more audiences.

The tour will call at:

Brodie Castle – Tuesday 25 November
Drum Castle – Thursday 27 November
Robert Burns Birthplace Museum – Saturday 29 November

Clements continued: ’I can’t wait to take this story out on the road in November, around more incredible National Trust for Scotland properties, to new stakeholders across the country.’

After its run across Scotland, The Burns Project will make its international debut in 2026 with a US tour, supported by the National Trust for Scotland Foundation USA. More details about tour dates and tickets will be available soon.

The Burns Project was a pilot initiative for creative collaborations that explore the histories, stories, art and culture of our places. These initiatives support our charity’s vision to care for, protect and share Scotland’s nature, beauty and heritage for everyone, as outlined in our 10-year strategy.