Robert Burns: Not in my Name

Kevin Williamson’s Robert Burns – Not In My Name is a tour de force of poetic reclamation, political critique, and passionate performance. With this bold and incendiary show, Williamson not only reintroduces us to Burns, but demands we reconsider who he was—and what he truly stood for.

This is not your schoolroom Burns. There are no tea towels, tartan clichés or sanitized sentimental verses. Instead, Williamson digs deep into the raw, radical essence of the Bard, bringing forth a man of revolutionary spirit, scathing wit, and unflinching social conscience. And he does it with charisma, clarity, and a searing moral urgency that makes this show one of the most vital pieces of spoken word theatre at this year’s Fringe.

From the moment he steps on stage, Williamson commands attention—not with bombast, but with precision and intent. There is a fire behind every word, yet it never lapses into rant or sermon. This is artful polemic, where poetry meets politics, and where past and present collide with unsettling resonance.

The show is structured around a mix of Burns’s original verse, expertly selected and powerfully delivered, and Williamson’s own razor-sharp commentary. These are interwoven with contextual reframing: Burns not as a drunken womaniser or kitsch icon, but as a man who spoke truth to power, raged against inequality, and stood in solidarity with the oppressed. Williamson makes a compelling case that the establishment appropriation of Burns—by monarchists, nationalists, and corporate Scotland—is a grotesque distortion of the poet’s true values.

There are moments of dark humour, biting satire, and raw emotional truth. Williamson channels Burns’s anger at hypocrisy, his empathy for the poor, and his belief in human dignity with such conviction that it’s hard not to feel shaken. In highlighting lesser-known poems and offering blistering analysis of Burns’s politics, he restores the poet’s voice as a revolutionary one—still relevant, still uncomfortable, still essential.

Technically, the show is stripped-back and intimate. A series of short films by projected onto a screen herald each new poem, and carefully timed contemporary photos underscore Burns’ ongoing relevance. The intensity of the delivery, combined with the richness of the language and the historical insight, creates a powerful intimacy that grips the audience from start to finish.

But what elevates Not In My Name beyond a lecture or literary tribute is its insistence on relevance. Williamson deftly draws parallels between Burns’s time and our own—between 18th-century aristocratic corruption and today’s political elites, between the suffering of the rural poor and modern-day austerity, between Burns’s fierce humanism and our collective need for solidarity in a fractured world. This is not nostalgia; it’s a call to arms.

In Robert Burns – Not In My Name, Kevin Williamson has achieved something remarkable: he’s not only revived the radical heart of Burns, but also reminded us why poetry matters. This is a vital, uncompromising, and unforgettable show. See it—then read Burns again, properly.

★★★★★