Jacobite Country

In the glossary provided on the way into the venue, there are definitions of "radgeness", "bam", "Diazepam" and "boak". Intentionally or not, this sets a tone. Haggis McSporran (sigh) has been duped by his mother and admitted to Craig Dunain Mental Hospital in Inverness where he believes he works as an auxiliary nurse.

The play, for no other reason than being about "Scottishness", begins and ends with Highland dancing and is punctuated by blaring bagpipes played by McSporran’s Uncle Angus. Uncle Angus is confined to a wheelchair having been subjected to shock therapy several decades earlier, presumably due to madness brought on by post-traumatic stress, but it’s hard to tell. McSporran’s insanity is apparently a result of the unbearable strain of just being Scottish, compounded by boredom and the use of soft drugs. McSporran is something of a comedian and his routines are rants which are meant to encompass the collective preoccupations of a nation, along with swipes at commercially successful Scottish comedians.

Jacobite Country doesn’t provide any insight into modern Scottish identity but rather regurgitates tiresome jokes and stereotypes. It isn’t inspiring, informative or educational and provides no positive direction for Scottish theatre. Characters even discuss surnames and rib one another for not being present at Culloden without irony. Although the show certainly panders to tartan-tinted perceptions of Scotland, the image it presents is hardly appealing. This reviewer, being Scottish, wonders how she has not yet been sectioned, become dependent on tranquilisers or felt compelled to impersonate the Loch Ness Monster. But there’s time yet.