Scottish history and art lesson at Show Scotland 2010

From cannonball battles to war time rationing, Show Scotland makes Scottish history come alive. Kirstin Innes rounds up the best events

One of the most unfortunately underrated annual events in the country, Show Scotland is unfurling itself out across the May bank holdiay weekend again, and we advise you to sit up and pay attention. Not so much a festival as a nuanced celebration of Scottish history and art, Show Scotland, which has been running for five years now, takes place in museums and galleries up and down the country, from the Borders to Shetland, and this year they’ve got over 40 events packed into one busy little weekend.

The beauty of Show Scotland is that it allows museum and gallery curators up and down the country to really unleash their creativity, and usually leads to some very interesting events that engage with local history and bring museum exhibits to life through roleplay, drama, workshops and discussions. Here are some of The List’s top picks for a good day out.

Various venues in Dundee and St Andrews are joining forces to pay tribute to the hugely influential Scottish mathematician, biologist and classics scholar, D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, the Professor Brian Cox of the early 20th Century, in celebration of the 150th anniversary of his birth. Look out for street theatre piece about Wentworth Thompson’s life The Parrot and the Polymath across both cities, live music and creative writing workshops inspired by his work, as well as a lecture from Nobel Prize winning biologist Professor Lewis Wolpert at Dundee University.

Over in Alloway, they’re reacting just as creatively to another famous son of that parish: Beauty and the Bard uses the whole village of Robert Burns’ birthplace, as the setting for a roaming play about the poet’s life, told by seven of his lovers.

Modern-day bard Margaret Elphinstone will be taking audiences even further back in history, too, with a series of events in various venues around the Kilmartin area. Elphinstone’s latest historical novel The Gathering Night is set in that area in the Mesolithic period, and she’ll be talking about historical research and the process of imagining an area way back in its past, amongst other things.

If all this is a little gently paced for your liking, Glasgow’s Clydebuilt Maritime Museum are rather ambitiously recreating the blockade running travails of the American Civil War at their Smash And Grab event, before restaging a Confederate/Unionist naval battle. Yes, totally interactive – all visitors will be handed cannonballs and told to pick a side. Yes, we’re a little baffled too.

Finally, a number of the Show Scotland events this year commemorate the 65 years since the end of World War Two. We like the look of We’ll Meet Again at Glasgow’s People’s Palace, a full-on VE Day party complete with 1940s makeup demonstrations, interactive rationbook shopping, and a full-on swing dance.

Show Scotland, various venues across Scotland, Fri 30 Apr–Mon 3 May. For full details, see www.showscotland.com

More: Days out, D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, History, Margaret Elphinstone, Robert Burns, Show Scotland

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