Confessions of a Justified Sinner
Netherbow Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Group: The Rowantree Company

Dolan Cummings

James Hogg's novel is a fascinating study of the effect of religious doctrine on the individual psyche. This production by the Rowan Tree Theatre Company focuses on the dualism at the heart of the story, using just two actors, Matthew Burgess as the doomed hero, and Alan Steele as the various other characters who influence and torment him.

Since the novel is widely seen as a critique of Calvinism, it is perhaps appropriate that it should be staged at the Netherbow Theatre, which is attached to John Knox House (Knox having been the principal disseminator of Calvinism in Scotland). In fact, Hogg's message is quite conservative, and could be applied to political convictions as readily as religious ones. The unravelling of the pious young man at the heart of the story is a frightening warning against getting carried away by a single idea.

It is Gil Martin, a mysterious stranger who at first seems to be a reflection of the hero himself, who forces him to carry through the logic of his beliefs to bloody murder. In fact, the murders are only logical if you subscribe to a perversely simplistic interpretation of Calvinist doctrine, but never mind: Hogg's point is that no individual can be trusted to take absolute moral responsibility for himself, and so we must listen to another voice, what might now be called the superego.

The hero's moral crisis is almost convincing in John Carnegie's derivation, but for me there is simply not enough time given in the production to explore the themes of the novel in depth. Nonetheless, two fine performances make this a worthy play in its own right.

5 August to 16 August.

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