Thunderstruck
★★★★☆ Electric
Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30): Fri 7 – Tue 18 Aug 2026
Review by Jenny Collins
Thunderstruck in the Netherbow theatre of the Scottish Storytelling Centre is a charming tragicomic underdog story centering on Scotland’s loudest and most misunderstood musical windbag, the bagpipes.
During Edinburgh’s peak tourist season, the bagpipes reputation precedes itself. Caterwauling buskers performing Scotland the Brave over and over on Princes Street. Snare drummers marching along the castle courtyard as the military pipes warm up with a droning sigh. With such a well-worn tartan history – and only nine notes to play with – there’s only so much a bagpiper can do, right?
David Colvin. Pic: Sean Defrancesco
David Colvin’s Thunderstruck proves definitively that this is far from the case. Accompanied by a live band underscoring its emotional highs and lows, Thunderstruck is a semi-autobiographical piece of folk theatre, exploring how Colvin’s aspiring bagpiping was forever altered by a brief encounter with Pitlochry binman, and unconventional piper, Gordon Duncan.
Duncan – who sadly took his own life in 2005 – appears like a Titan in this work. Colvin addresses him in the show by looking upwards, still trying to understand an unknowable figure who dared to throw away the traditionalist rulebook. In one of Thunderstruck’s most significant scenes, Duncan drunkenly thinks aloud, “What can I do with nine notes?”. Colvin reverently wonders if what Duncan said was a question or a boast.
Nestled away in the Scottish Storytelling Centre on the historic Royal Mile, the live band is at full volume to match the bagpipes’ power. The effect is thunderous. Sitting in the front row when the music goes full throttle may only be for the brave, but from any seat the energy feels electric.
AC/DC fans with fingers crossed for a crowd-pleasing (and technically brilliant) cover of the titular song will not be disappointed when Colvin picks up the bagpipes at show’s end. Witnessing bagpipes, even with all its limitations, somehow achieve the iconic opening riff is a feat that needs to be seen to be believed. As a closing dedication to Duncan’s work, the effect is somehow both striking and tender.
polished gem
Written by Colvin in 2017, performed internationally since then and now returning for its sixth run at the Fringe, Thunderstruck is a polished gem. As the sole storyteller, Colvin stays on the beat in each of his impressions. Watching this kilted performer in one scene flick back and forth between a parody of his own adolescence to a pitch-perfect Lady Di impression is comedic gold.
Given the expository dialogue needed to cover the musical technicality of the pipes, it would be easy for this show to feel too much like an Intro to Music Theory lecture. Some of the early moments are spent with Colvin imitating his piping mentor (affectionately named “the Grumpy C**t) as he explains the sliding scale, or his school teacher giving an introduction to binary form.
But even when it does function as a lesson, it’s an involving and funny one. One lucky audience member even gets the opportunity to give the chanter a try. Under Colvin’s careful and considerate guidance, this never feels like a cruel exercise in humiliation.
Thunderstruck is a deeply human story for anyone seeking a more unconventional side of Scottish culture.
Running time: One hour and 20 minutes (no interval).
Scottish Storytelling Centre (Netherbow Theatre), 43-45 High Street, EH1 1SR (Venue 30).
Friday 7 – Tuesday 18 August 2026.
Daily: 6.40pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Facebook: @ThunderstruckGD
Instagram: @thunderstruckgd
ENDS
