Auld Sangs and New Rhymes: The Life of Burns

THIS distillation of the life of Robert Burns is an ambitious undertaking by Leitheatre, with a 17-strong cast plus an 18th-century-style string band filling the hall with good humour and song. It has all the heart but also the failings of an amateur show.

Steve Bennett and Lee Shedden play the young and adult Rabbie respectively with conviction, though not quite enough charisma, while there are good cameo roles from the likes of John Macaskill, John Wallace and Dorsay Larnach as the couthie gossip/narrator.

Effective scenes include Burns’s reception into douce Edinburgh society and his introduction to the rumbustious obverse at the Crochallan Fencibles drinking club. There are stilted moments, though, as between Burns and Highland Mary, and the band need to be a lot tighter.

Until 22 August. Today 7:30pm.