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. 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 it’s place in the worlds musical lexicon as an instrument capable a 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 Scottish Arts Club award), had runs 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” accolade from the Sunday Post.
Take whatever romantic notions you have of the bagpipes and leave them at the door. Part of Scotland’s “Year of Stories” 2022.
Contains strong language throughout.