Headlining this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, Burn, is an ambitious re-telling of the life of Rabbie Burns — known to sassenach’s as Robert Burns — Scotland’s revered national poet. A one man piece of dance theatre finds performer/co-creator Alan Cumming, alone on stage with only the bard’s verbatim words, and not his verse for a script. This co-production of the National Theatre of Scotland, New York City’s The Joyce Theater and the EIF, has assembled an internationally renowned team about Cumming, and central to creating the visual world of Burn, is award-winning set-designer Ana Inés Jabares-Pita.
Ana was kind enough to sit down for a chat with TheQR, discussing her work on the show, and her life as a globe-trotting creative professional.
📍King’s Theatre, Edinburgh
📅 Aug 4-10
🕖 8.00pm/3.00pm
🕖 Running time (approx.): 1 hour
👥 Creator and Performer: Alan Cumming
👥Creator and Co-choreographer: Steven Hoggett
👥Co-choreographer: Vicki Manderson
👥Costume Designer: Katrina Lindsay
👥Set Designer: Ana Inés Jabares-Pita
👥Lighting Designer: Tim Lutkin
👥Video Designer: Andrzej Goulding
👥Sound Designer: Matt Padden
👥Associate Director: Shilpa T-Hyland
💰 From £31
🎂 12+
🎭 Wheelchair Accessible Venue, Wheelchair Accessible Toilet, Audio Enhancement, Captioning (Aug 9), Audio Description (Aug 10)
You’ve designed in many different genres. Did Burn present any unique challenges when you came to create its world?
I guess one of the main challenges is that there is only one person on his page holding the whole weight of the show by himself during an hour and a bit. That’s a lot of responsibility for Alan, he’s very brave in a way.
Our job is to support him the best we possibly can to make sure that he speaks with the space he surrounded by, and that the space supports him in telling us the story of Burns.
Have you enjoyed the process so far?
I’m actually still enjoying it!
We are starting full rehearsals next week, which is when everything comes together with lighting, video and all the different experiential elements We will see for real all the things we’ve been trying and dreaming of. How are they are gonna work? How are they are gonna behave on stage? So yes, I’m enjoying it a lot.
We also have a really amazing team of people.
And a quick detour further into the past: did the pandemic affect your approach to your creative life at all?
I mean it definitely helped me to have time to reflect on it, and how my process was up until that moment. There are always two things that can be improved. One is communication, and the other is kindness.
You can always be kinder. I think after the pandemic, we all should try to even kinder.
You’ve already alluded to there only being one performer on stage in Burn…, have you felt more pressure on yourself due to the lack of bodies between the audience and your creations?
I mean it is a big responsibility, but the burden is actually held mainly by Alan. Also you’re working in a team, because the space wouldn’t exist without the lighting design, or the video design or the costumers. I don’t feel that I have a special responsibility.
I feel a lot of responsibility, but it’s the normal amount!
Looking at your career as a whole, where does Burn find you in grander design of your creative career?
I think this is a really exciting project.
It’s almost like a candy, a real treat! Robert Burns is an important figure in Scottish history and to be able to tell this less known side of his story whilst surrounded by an amazing team of people. I mean all of my colleagues are at high points in their careers. I’m really honoured to be here right now.
It’s like, wow, I can’t believe it all!
Do you feel any particular sympathies between your own Spanish cultural heritage, and your work in here in Scotland, and particularly with this production looking at the life of Burns?
Oh, absolutely. I am from Spain, but I am from, um, area of a Spain called Galicia, which is bordering on Portugal, so we have healthy roots as well.
There are a lot of common points. The landscape it’s really, really similar, with the green shades; the colours of the sea. I really feel at home. And, of course, our traditional instrument is the bagpipes…not quite the same, but still….even the music has connections. It truly makes me feel at home when I’m here.
I have a lot of love for Scotland, because one of my very first jobs was with a National Theatre of Scotland, so this is my second work with them in 8 years, and I’m really delighted to be back.
What have you been drawing on to create the world of Burn, who, or what has influenced your design?
This is a totally devised show, as in devised right in the room. It’s not that we have a script ahead of time or anything like that. We are creating it all together. I mean, especially Steven Hoggett, and Alan; they take on the greatest weight of course.
It’s been really interesting starting from scratch together. You just need to get first flavour of who Burns was, and what sort of world he navigated in that time period. So there is a lot of historical research, but then from there we can dream…what we are trying to do is get in his head.
We’re also developing the show from his letters rather than his poetry. So it’s really interesting. We are getting to know Robert very personally, and a different side of him, that’s less known.
And coming back to you, who, or what have been the greatest influences in your own development as a creative professional?
Well, really, very eclectic. So, I mean, I start with contemporary and, and classic art, paintings, culture, but you know, I try to get my inspiration from so many different places. Feel is really important to me, as well as music…as in this show. So depending on the show, I will get my references from many different places.
Has your own opinion of Burns changed as you’ve travelled this creative path?
Yes. There is a lot of studying behind creating a show and, and research. I knew Robert Burns as a poet, so I knew his verse. So I had all this kind of more traditional knowledge of him.
But now, through his letters, we are really understanding Burns’ life from a completely different context, and we get to see his human side, rather than the idealized side of him, which is as the National hero.
Are you particularly looking forward to being part of the International Festival? Does that add anything to the experience for you?
Oh, absolutely. I used to live in Scotland, so I’m very aware of the International Festival. It’s such a big thing where all the cultures gather for theatre, music, dance from many different parts of the world.
So we are a small part on, on that big thing. Celebrating theatre in all its forms.
Where do you hope to go next in your, in your career? What are your hopes?
Yeah. So, I mean, I’m a very curious person and I love to try new things…So I would really, really love to design a pop or rock concert, like Rosalia, Billie Eilish, Franz Ferdinand…That would be really fun also because for me, music is really important. As I said before, it really informs my work and actually, in this show in, Burn, we are working with electronic music from a composer called Anna Meredith.
Her music is amazing and the clash and contrast that…that clicks with the dance and story. It’s really, really powerful.
Do you enjoy the, the process of working with other creative people? Does, does that bring you joy?
Yes, I think to work in theater, you need to know how to appreciate working with a lot of people.
But also I think my work becomes better when I work with people, because it makes it more flexible, but also it allows you to try all your ideas, because suddenly you have a lot more brains thinking about similar things and it’s beautiful when things flow and grow and, and you build them together.
So now, it’s all about to start for you; are you excited for the next couple of weeks?
Absolutely! I mean, I’m excited and nervous of course…but I can’t wait till next week when we start to have all our choices made real!
You know, it’s the lighting that gives you the mood and really defines the space; the video as well, the music….the sound. So I can’t wait to see how all these pieces of the show comes together.
My last question, um, would be, what do you hope that the audience is thinking about when they leave the theatre?
Well, what I hope is that when they come to see the show, they think maybe they are seeing a traditional ‘Burns’ show, but then when they leave the show, I hope they have learned a bit more about character, the more human side, as well as having had an audio-visual experience which fulfils them. There are beautiful moments that will stay with them forever, and I hope they will tell other friends about it!
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