Amy Taylor reviews a production with a 'wonderfully playful subversive charm that runs throughout'.
"Thomas Aikenhead, who the fuck is he?" roar the eight-strong cast, acting as a group of anonymous Edinburgh councillors quibbling over just who the city should honour with a new statue. And the issue of identity, with more than a few swear words thrown in for good measure and, of course, emphasis, in the good old-fashioned Scottish tradition of cursing.
Dubbed "a brutal comedy with songs", Paul Hunter's I Am Thomas, written by the poet Simon Armitage with Told By An Idiot and co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Lyceum Theatre, tells the sorry tale of the last person to be executed for blasphemy in the UK, the eponymous theology student, Thomas Aikenhead.
Breathtakingly relevant in an age where freedom of expression seems to be under threat, and drawing very clear parallels to the Charlie Hebdo attack, I Am Thomas takes us back to an age where freedom of expression was a dream, to a time when the words of a 20-year-old student make him not just a menace to a religious society but also, seemingly, a threat to the then-Lord Advocate James Stewart, who insisted that he hang as an example to others.
Avant-garde in style and substance, with allusions to cabaret, musical and sketch comedy, I Am Thomas, is, at its heart, a tragedy. The multi-talented cast do well with the source material, which, underneath all the music, song, (the music by Iain Johnstone and vocals by John Pfumojena are not just a highlight, but a joy) interchanging characters is a story about a young man, barely out of adolescence, put to death by an intolerant and suppressive society.
Although the humour falls a little flat at points (Dolly the Sheep makes a cameo appearance as a judge, two Match of the Day-esque pundits act as impartial observers, providing commentary and often bizarre anecdotes) and can verge on the predictable, it's got this wonderfully playful subversive charm that runs throughout the piece. One can't help but marvel at the nature of 17th century Scottish society, and yet it's hard to forget that this is a story about a real person.
While the audience may have nodded along when the cast pondered who the fuck Thomas Aikenhead was at the very beginning, by the end of the play they will not only know who the fuck he was but marvel at how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go.
Performing at the Royal Lyceum until April 09 before transferring to Eden Court from April 12-16.
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