SCRIPT FOR "THE BURNS SUPPER"

Script for “The Burns Supper”

Olga: Helen, I haven’t seen you for ages. How are you?

Helen: I’m fine thanks. How are you?

Olga: I’m glad I’ve seen you – I’ve been invited to a Burns Supper and I don’t know what to wear or what it’s about.

Helen: Well, Robert Burns is Scotland’s national poet and every January 25th people get together to have a meal in his memory. It can be just a few friends, or it can be a big occasion where everyone dresses in traditional clothing, the men with their kilts and the women wear tartan skirts or sashes. Where is it happening?

Olga: It’s in the City Hall, so it’s bound to be a big event. I’m really nervous – what should we wear?

Helen: I wouldn’t worry too much. It might be nice if you wore tartan or wore your national costume. Do you have a partner for the night?

Olga: Yes, my husband. Should he hire a kilt?

Helen: That would be a nice gesture but he could wear a tartan tie or his own national costume.
What usually happens is the general audience arrives first and then the main guests are piped to their seats …

Olga: Piped?

Helen: Yes, a piper plays the bagpipes while they are walking in.

Olga: Oh, I see, the bagpipes. Lovely.

Helen: And you should stand up for that part. Then the Chairman will say The Selkirk Grace – it’s like a prayer that Burns wrote. And once everyone has had a drink, the haggis will be piped in too.

Olga: Ah. The haggis – I’ve heard of that. It’s a type of sausage, isn’t it?

Helen: Well it’s more like a pudding made of oats - and meat - and spices.

Olga: Ok, what happens next?

Helen: Usually there’s an address to the haggis …

Olga: Address?

Helen: Not that kind of address! It means a kind of speech …

Olga: To the haggis?

Helen: Yes. Again it’s a poem that Burns wrote …

Olga: To a pudding?

Helen: No it’s called To a Haggis …, Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o' a grace as lang's my arm. …something like that. Anyway, after that, it’s cut up and served to everyone with tatties and neeps. Em, potatoes and turnip.

Olga: Sounds delicious.

Helen: It can be – not that I’m too fond of it myself. Then there will be a toast to Rabbie Burns, we usually drink whisky. There will be lots of Scottish music and dancing and the next speech is the toast to the lassies.

Olga: Lassies …?

Helen: Yes, the women. Burns was famous for his love poems and for his love of women.

Olga: Ok then what happens?

Helen: The last speech is called the reply to the lassies and is given by one of the female members of the party.

Olga: Lots of speeches then.

Helen: Aye, but they are meant to be humorous and entertaining, like a lot of Burns’ poems. That’s followed by dancing and singing.

Olga: It sounds like a lot of fun.

Helen: Aye it is. I hope you enjoy it. See you later

Olga: Bye, see you later