'There's no limit to the scale of his story': Rapper Dave Hook on bringing William Wallace's legend to the Edinburgh stage
Wallace: A Musical combines the Scottish warrior’s story with a hip-hop soundtrack for new audiences
A brand-new musical due to hit Edinburgh this week has instructed audiences to “forget the Braveheart cliches” as it takes on the story of William Wallace with a modern-day slant.
Wallace: A Musical is coming to the King’s Theatre from Wednesday, September 30 until Saturday, October 3 and tells the story of one of Scotland’s most famous historical figures with a hip-hop soundtrack.
Co-creator and star Dave Hook has spoken to the Evening News about how he and playwright Rob Drummond have tackled the legendary tale in an unconventional way.
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He said: “It was initially Rob Drummond’s idea and he started work on it back in 2014. Jill from Raw Material connected me with Rob a few years ago and we started having a chat about it.
“It's been quite a long process of building it and making it, and for me it's exciting now that it's out in the world and on stages and the response from the audience so far has been great.”
Hitting the King’s Theatre stage is a “really exciting” moment for Dave and the cast and crew, after transferring and expanding on the original A Play, A Pie, and A Pint production.
He said: “[The King’s Theatre] is such a beautiful, incredible building, and the work they've done in reopening, it looks incredible. It's got so much history so it's a really exciting space to be bringing it into this week.”
The rapper and songwriter is also looking forward to bringing Wallace: A Musical to Edinburgh because of his personal connection of the city.
Dave has spent more than 20 years involved in the music programme at Edinburgh Napier University, where he completed his PhD and still currently works as a music lecturer.
Dave said: “It's been incredible to see generation after generation of incredible musicians come through there and then to see where they go next, which is really incredible all around the country and beyond with their own music careers.
“The university has been very good to me as well, because it was Napier that gave me the opportunity. When I started there, I was working as a music technician and they gave me the opportunity to teach and develop as an academic as well.”
One job co-creators Dave and Rob had in preparing Wallace: A Musical for its full-length debut was scaling it up from the much smaller Oran Mor stage.
Dave said: “There's no limit to the sort of scale of the story that we're dealing with. It's a big topic, there's lots to contend with, there's lots of huge characters in it.
“A Play, A Pie, and A Pint was a brilliant opportunity because it was a fantastic way to bring it to an audience and see how they react to it and the proximity of the audience, the responses, all that was excellent. But being able to sort of scale it up in terms of size and format just allows you to expand on the story and hopefully add to the sort of impact it can have.”
Hip-hop has found a home on the musical stage, with the recent success of hit shows such as Hamilton over the last decade, and no one was more suited to taking on a hip-hop version of Wallace’s story than Dave.
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The rapper is known for his role in the critically-acclaimed Scottish hip-hop group Stanley Odd as well as his solo work, with Dave, who raps under the name ‘Solareye’, also bagging the Best Hip-Hop award at the 2018 Scottish Alternative Music Awards.
Dave said: “I've been involved in hip-hop culture in Scotland for a long time and I think it's an interesting thing because it's sometimes misunderstood in terms of how hip-hop culture and Scottish culture connect.
“It's one type of contemporary oral history and storytelling and that's a thing that's existed in all cultures around the world since before the written word. In Scotland it was the seanchaidh that was the oral historian and I think hip-hop culture can provide that service now.”
He added: “In terms of writing songs in any form, but certainly in a hip hop form, there’s so many possibilities to look at with the story of William Wallace. What sort of character is Edward Longshanks, what sort of character is Robert The Bruce, what sort of character is Marion Braidfute, and what type of rapper might each one of those people be? It just gives you this incredible wide open tapestry to start envisaging the characters within the songs.
“I also think it's really exciting and interesting to ask questions about our shared histories and the myths and the truths that kind of bind us and form our national identities. It means certainly in Scotland we're starting from a point where probably we all know something and then as a group collectively, performers and the audience, can sort of have a conversation about that over the course of the show.”
Wallace: A Musical will play at the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh from Wednesday, September 30 until Saturday, October 3. Tickets are available on the Capital Theatres website.The show is set to go on tour throughout Scotland in 2027.