What is new about the Scottish song Auld Lang Syne? Its lovely tune is so well known across the globe that it’s hard to imagine making a full-length performance about it. Mairi Campbell approaches this song with a personal touch. The show Auld Lang Syne is a biographical storytelling piece using live music performance and animation. Listening to Mairi’s stories about her childhood, her music career, and her partnership with composer Dave Gray, the audience revisits the famous song through a nostalgic lens.
Although Mairi Campbell’s musical performance is charming, it is not closely interwoven with the narration as a whole. Animation and rhythmic background music only sometimes help with the overall effect, with the latter at times disrupting the beauty of the performer’s singing. There are sentimental memories, witty jokes, and anecdotes that recapture your attention from time to time, but they are so loosely patched together that one can hardly find a unified form in them.
One of the most interesting parts is Mairi sharing her experience of teaching the song Auld Lang Syne at a community choir. Seeing her demonstrate different pronunciations of the lyrics is amusing, educative, and engaging. It reminds us how little we actually know about this song, despite its popularity. Nevertheless, such episodes with clearer artistic ideas only appear after long stretches of sentimental memories, witty jokes, and anecdotes. It would be most appropriate to call this performance a musical diary, as it is genuine but casual, moving but loose.
If you are interested in Scottish folk music or you are a fan of Mairi Campbell, you will have a good time attending her Auld Lang Syne at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. If you are neither, then you might find it difficult to stay focused.
