Showing @ Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh Thu 24 Apr – Sat 03 May

Like Lung Ha’s Theatre Company’s site-specific promenade production in March, the National Theatre of Scotland have also chosen to stage their latest performance in an exhibition centre. Following Union, The Lyceum’s creative response to September’s impending choice, NTS burst into Edinburgh’s Scottish National Portrait Gallery with their take on the divisive decision, Dear Scotland. The approach is radically different from Tim Barrow’s text but puffs with as much patriotic pride as Keith Fleming’s Lord Belhaven. The two pillars of Scottish culture have approached a host of the country’s leading wordsmiths to write a monologue in the voice of one of those adorning the gallery’s interior, discussing the current state of Alba.

Those scribing the series of orations directed by Joe Douglas and Catrin Evans include playwrights David Greig and Rob Drummond, novelists Louise Welsh and Ali Smith, and broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli. The soliloquies are performed beside the depiction the recitation is giving life to, their watching faces providing a visual anchor to the imagined thoughts. Among those animating the frozen expressions are Maureen Beattie, Colin McCredie, Sally Reid and Ryan Fletcher. The speeches themselves are staged in two tours of differing content, that pleasingly lead audiences past many of the other pieces lining the walls of the building so that curiosities can be sated even during transit. A book of the texts and the corresponding visage will also be available on Thursday 01 May, adding a literary string to this bow of theatre and art. Having only been shown a few enjoyable snippets I can’t speak for every performance, but the wide selection of addresses coupled with the stately setting should be enough to send at least a few shivers down your spine.

Click here for more information about Dear Scotland