The Journey

The idea for TAM began long before it reached a rehearsal room.

Growing up in Dumfries & Galloway, Ellie’s Grandpa would often recite Tam o’ Shanter to her. Burns’ visceral language conjured a vivid, strange and theatrical world that stayed with her long after she first heard the poem.

In 2021, while studying Drama Directing at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Ellie began seriously exploring how that world might be brought to the stage.

At the heart of the idea was a desire to make Burns’ work accessible to contemporary audiences and to show that his writing, far from being something confined to the past, can be vibrant, funny, provocative and full of complexity.

But there were also questions hiding within the familiar story.

What about Kate, waiting at home?
Who is Nannie beyond the witch Tam encounters?
And what changes when the women in the story are given voices of their own?

These questions became the beginnings of TAM.

In January 2025, Ellie was awarded Support for Ambition funding from Arts D&G to undertake the first three-day research and development process and answer one important question:

Could Tam o’ Shanter become a musical?

Fortunately, the answer was very much yes.

For the first time, the beginnings of TAM entered a rehearsal room. Ellie was joined by writer Finlay Avison, composer Jack Avison, actors Kirsty Pickering and Stephen Wills, with the R&D produced by Emma Porteous.

Across three days, the team experimented with music, text, character, movement and visual storytelling, beginning to discover how Burns’ poem might transform into a piece of contemporary actor-musician theatre.

The R&D provided the first opportunity to hear the material performed by actors, test ideas on their feet and begin finding the theatrical language of the show.

What had existed for years as an idea began to become a piece of theatre.

It also marked the beginning of the creative collaboration between Ellie, Finlay and Jack, who have continued developing TAM together as the project has grown.

Following the initial R&D, the project continued to grow.

Writer Finlay Avison and composer Jack Avison continued as part of the creative team, developing an original script and score around Burns’ iconic poem.

In May 2026, Arts D&G was awarded £128,000 through Creative Scotland’s Expanded Festivals Fund, supporting the continued development of TAM towards its premiere in 2027.

TAM will become the first full-scale production produced by the Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival itself, marking an exciting new chapter for both the musical and the festival.

The next stage of development will take the project through further writing, composition and R&D, including an international creative collaboration exploring the shadow puppetry and visual theatre at the heart of the production.

Visual storytelling has been central to the idea for TAM from its earliest development.

As the musical grows, the team is exploring how shadow puppetry, light and visual theatre can create the supernatural world of Burns’ poem and allow the production to move between reality, memory, folklore and imagination.

The next stage of development includes an international collaboration with German visual theatre artist Frédéric Heisig, bringing his expertise in shadow puppetry and visual theatre into the creative development of TAM.

The collaboration will bring the creative team together in Germany to experiment with shadow, light, puppetry and live performance, beginning to develop the distinctive visual language that will sit alongside TAM’s music and storytelling.

The journey continues throughout 2026 and 2027 as the script, score and visual world of TAM are developed towards a full production.

At its heart, the ambition remains the same: to create an exciting new piece of Scottish musical theatre rooted in the place where Burns lived, in the landscapes and culture of Dumfries & Galloway, and in a story that has been told for more than two centuries.

A musical that celebrates Burns while being unafraid to question him.

A story filled with music, folklore, humour, darkness and shadow.

And an invitation to rediscover a tale you might think you already know.

The ride is only beginning.