As Robert Burns he was the talk of the 1965 Edinburgh Festival. Now, 11 world tours and several lifetimes later, John Cairney, the most famous exponent of Scotland’s Bard, is back.

Since 1959 when he lost the part of Gabriel Oates to Alan Bates in the film Far From the Madding Crowd, Cairney’s name has become synonymous with Burns, not only as an actor but as an academic. So it is fitting that in this year of The Homecoming, which marks the 250^th anniversary of Burns’ birth, Cairney too has come home to his native Scotland after 17 years in New Zealand.

And what a comeback! He returned unannounced, and his venue accommodates just 60 people, but it is perfect for this intimate show, an hour-long dip into his world famous solo play, while seamlessly weaving into it his own life with Burns.

He has his audience eating out of his hand from the moment they walk in. And then the show begins and for the next hour he delivers pathos, humour and insight with remarkable energy and timing. He may be coming up to his 80^th birthday, but you’d never guess it as he leaps onto a chair to ‘ride’ the grey mare in a powerful rendering of Tam O’Shanter or cries as the young Burns mourning his father’s death. This is a prime example of experience ruling over youth. The skills this velvet-voiced actor has accumulated over more than 50 years on stage and screen certainly come to the fore.

Review by Clare Brotherwood

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