O is For Hoolet

Our language is inherently personal. It’s how we relate to the world, understand it and form bonds. It’s also—as is this semi-performed lecture demonstrates—a battleground.

Writer and performer Ishbel McFarlane has crafted a fascinating exploration of the Scots language, from its words to its treatment by governments, schools and communities. Prompted by pre-prepared questions on cards read out by the audience, McFarlane adopts the personas of real-life linguists and Scots speakers, including her four-year-old self.

This is a funny, illuminating and quietly fierce defence of the right to speak a language that has been denigrated through comparison with so-called "neutral" English. From a recording of McFarlane’s then-19-year-old mother singing a border ballad, to the British Act of Union, she weaves a narrative of shame, ambivalence and suppression.

On a stage lined with bookshelves, with little houses on the floor with books for roofs, McFarlane explains the concept of "habitas" – the place inside us where our experiences intermingle and inform how we act going forward. This is the legacy of language, and it’s often a heavy one. This is theory is brought into the home.

McFarlane is a warm and witty presence. She’s also unaffectedly honest and moving when talking about her own complicated relationship with the Scots language while growing up. In her hands, the story of its words becomes one of the political filtered through the familial.

O is for Hoolet takes words and balances them in the scale of history. It’ll educate you, but also make you care.