Dogstar’s hit of the 1999 Highland Festival returns in 2012 for Celtic Connections at the Tron Theatre, Glasgow on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 January, followed by an extensive Scottish tour from Stornoway to Musselburgh.  The Captain’s Collection was written by Hamish MacDonald from an idea by Bruce MacGregor and in 2012 the production will again be directed by the celebrated actor and director Alison Peebles.

The Captain’s Collection is an acclaimed theatrical production, designed by Ali Maclaurin, and performed by some of Scotland’s finest actors and traditional musicians. It sees the return to Scotland of the sublime singer Alyth McCormack, CATS Award winner 2009 Matthew Zajac as Captain Simon Fraser, regular Dogstar artist Jonny Hardie as Musical Director and multi-instrumentalist Ingrid Henderson.

The story is set around a published collection of Highland music, the family inheritance of Captain Simon Fraser of Knockie. In the era of Sir Walter Scott and Waverley, when Highland Scotland was becoming viewed as the Romantic ideal of Europe, Captain Fraser attempts to win fame by publishing his Highland music.

In order to gain the favour of elitist Regency society, Captain Fraser is forced to remove the Gaelic verses, often of Jacobite and virulently anti-Royal sentiment, from his collection, to be presented as refined chamber pieces fit for the drawing room.

Visiting Captain Fraser in old age, as he draws his final breath, he is visited by the ghosts and dreams dwelling within the pages of his collection. Transported through the legends of the music itself and back through his own turbulent existence as composer, British Army

Captain, dispossessed laird and imprisoned bankrupt, through a story where ambition to succeed has been thwarted at every turn.

The triumphs and tribulations of Captain Fraser’s life are played out through a tapestry of moving and rousing tunes and songs that lie at the heart of traditional Gaelic and Scottish music. The music from the play was commissioned as a CD on the Greentrax label and highly acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic. The play was also adapted into an international award-winning radio series for BBC Radio Scotland. Dogstar’s last appearance at Celtic Connections was with Matthew Zajac’s fantastically successful solo show The Tailor of Inverness in 2009.

The Captain’s Collection is a recipient of Creative Scotland’s Redistribution of Existing Work investment award.

Dogstar Theatre Website

Celtic Connections Website

Source: Dogstar Theatre