I Am Thomas 2016

A co-production with the National Theatre Scotland, Royal Lyceum Edinburgh, in association with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse.

Written by Told by an Idiot, music by Iain Johnstone, lyrics by Simon Armitage

Collaborating with award-winning poet Simon Armitage, Told by an Idiot, National Theatre Scotland and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh presented a wildly comic and provocative piece of music theatre.

Edinburgh; a cold town on the edge of civilisation, in very much the Year of Our Lord, 1696. The church has spies everywhere. Here, you keep your counsel and choose your words with care ... unless you are Thomas Aikenhead –a loud-mouthed, smart-arsed and likable student at the university. A man in the wrong place at absolutely the wrong time ... trouble is brewing for Thomas.

‘It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong’ (Voltaire, 1752)

A rich vein of black humour is exploded in this account of the last person in Britain to be executed for blasphemy. Using Told by an Idiot’s internationally celebrated theatrical invention, we glimpsed into Edinburgh’s dark past to reveal this true story with universal resonance. A riotous and unsettling drama which swang between 1696 and the present day, I Am Thomas was performed with an original live score.

‘Told by an Idiot are the most exciting, enthralling and energising presence in British Theatre’
Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate

Inspired by fact, fantasy and an original short story by James Robertson.