Thunderstruck concerns the legacy and mythology surrounding folk musician, composer and innovator, Gordon Duncan, who tragically died in 2005, celebrating fully a working-class Scottish man who transcended his art. Written and Performed by Fifer, actor and bagpiper David Colvin who was a member of the original cast of the National Theatre of Scotland Play, Black Watch in 2006. Thunderstruck is directed By Tom Freeman who’s involvement in Scottish theatre spans many years with credits including 7:84 & Communicado Theatre companies.

Thunderstruck is told through the eyes of a young piper from Fife who learns the bagpipes as well as the history, rules and proud traditions of Scotland’s national instrument and watches on as those rules, so painfully learned are torn apart by a man with an unruly, ostentatious, untameable musical talent. It’s about Scotland and how we as a nation look after and nurture our most talented innovators, our reliance on alcohol as a nation and most importantly Thunderstruck dispels the cultural cringe that comes with the Great Highland Scottish Bagpipe, and seeks to consolidate its place in the world musical lexicon as an instrument capable of great beauty and great subtlety.

Thunderstruck performed at Piping Live in 2018, sold out the Tron Theatre as part of Celtic Connections 2019, had its official world premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019 (where it won a Herald Angel Award and a Scottish Arts Club award), had run in Perth and Adelaide in Australia (yielding more awards) before returning to Edinburgh in 2021 for a sold-out series of shows at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and a “Best of the Fest” the accolade from the Sunday Post

Take whatever romantic notions you have of the bagpipes and leave them at the door.

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Would you mind giving us a brief insight into what your show is?

My name is David Colvin, I am the writer and performer of the international award-winning production; Thunderstruck which will be performing 13 shows at the beautiful Scottish Storytelling Centre throughout the fringe. Thunderstruck is the intimate and epic tale of the greatest bagpiper who ever lived, who happened to be a bin man and who changed Scottish music, forever.

Tell us about the creative team and process involved?

The play is written and performed by me, David Colvin (NTS, Communicado, ETT, PFT) and is directed by Scottish Theatre stalwart Tom Freeman (Communicado, 7:84). The play also stars our sensational three-piece band who are wonderful young Scottish musicians.

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How does it feel coming to the Fringe?

We are proudly returning to the Fringe for our fourth consecutive year. Being branded the “Bagpipe Play” in 2019 we have certainly met some challenges as many were convinced it wasn’t a story that had an audience or “legs”. How wrong they were, we exceeded all expectations in 2019 picking up a Herald Angel and Scottish Theatre Club awards before being invited to Australia in 2020 where we gained a One to Watch award (Perth Fringe World) and the Theatre Award (Adelaide Fringe). We survived the pandemic before being booked for the glorious socially distanced 2021 fringe and in 2022 we took our play to 19 venues throughout Scotland including Dundee Rep, Eden Court, The Byre Theatre, Orkney Folk Festival and many others.

We are continuously blown away (pun intended) by our audiences throughout Scotland and Australia and look forward to adding more international destinations in 2024.

There are over 3,000 shows at the Fringe. So, what sets your show apart?

Whatever you think a show about the greatest bagpiper who ever lived is, we guarantee it will surprise you. Our opening night in the Fringe will be our 114th performance, including previews. We are now having repeat viewers, including some who have seen the show 3, 4 or even 5 times. We will surprise you and defy all your expectations.

 

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Is there anything specific you’re hoping for the audience to take away?

So many things from the frivolous to the profound. We want everyone to have a newfound understanding and love of bagpipes, to see it as an instrument capable of such subtlety and beauty. We wish every one to go home and immediately google the person for whom our story concerns. Marking his place in Scottish Music’s history as one of great importance! We hope people will look carefully at institutionalised alcohol abuse, bullying, mental health and how we as a nation (Scotland in the case of play) look after our most talented, especially when they emerge from the most unexpected of places.

Your ideal audience is in attendance, who’s watching? Or more importantly – who isn’t there…

Bookers from New York, Sydney, London, Ireland and across Canada. I want them all there. I want the ghosts of Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Miller in the box and the entire cast of succession in the front row. Who isn’t there? I have no answer to that. I think even the most ardent hater of all things bagpipes will leave with a whole new perspective on Scotland’s national instrument.

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It’s an intense month, so where you’re able, how do you plan to relax, and are there any other shows you intend to see or want to recommend?

I do not relax. I see an average of 30 shows every Fringe. I try and see every show in my venue and get out and about to try and see independent, working-class theatre mainly (But in reality, I love all theatre). This year we’re doing 13 shows so I have a few days off which will be filled with theatre. Good, bad, ugly, old, young, everything, physical, storytelling, musical. All of it. Magical Edinburgh. If the wrestling show, Ragnarök is back, unmissable, it similarly defies expectations. IamLoud does spoken word shows every weekend in my venue at the Scottish Storytelling Centre and it’s wonderful to watch wordsmiths achieve so much emotion, humour, disgust, and enlightenment in a single poem.

In your ideal world, how can we improve the world of the Fringe, of performance, and the industry?

I passionately believe that those with the means should be paying more and subsidising those without. We need to cap what the big houses are allowed to charge their performers (in terms of lights, sound, tech and all the add ones) and make illegal the sickening “minimum fringe free”. I’ve never been caught out myself but I know those who have. I feel if a production house books a show it should at the very least, share the risk! Finally Edinburgh Fringe is wandering towards being a plaything only for those who can afford to have their stories told, if that happens I believe all the

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