The Scotsman

Susurrus * * * *

For a truly unique and troubling response to the story of A Midsummer Night's Dream, though, it's David Leddy's new headset drama Susurrus, playing every day in the Botanic Gardens, that stays in the mind. Each "wanderer" sets off, alone with a map and an MP3 player, for an 80-minute circular tour of the garden, during which Leddy introduces us to three characters - a son, a daughter, and an old opera singer - and leads us through the story of their father and colleague Robin, whose ambiguous and abusive relationship with young boys eventually destroys both his career as a singer and his family life.

In some ways it's a familiar story, in this age of coming to terms with hidden child abuse. But Leddy tells it with such a magical blend of sorrow, anger, compassion, excellent writing and magnificent music - mainly from Benjamin Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream - that he makes us see the whole tragedy anew, and somehow enhances our sense of the beauty of the garden, even as he makes us face the awful complexity of the lives of many of those who walk there, enjoying the sunshine.