Step into the arms of nature

High-flying storyteller Karine Polwart lands in Perth Theatre from April 17-22 with her show Wind Resistance, inspired by a peat bog near her rural home in Midlothian

Scottish songwriter Karine Polwart is revelling in a new career as a theatrical storyteller.

The Stirlingshire-raised performer’s Wind Resistance was one of the big debut hits of 2016’s Edinburgh Festival, earning the Scottish critics’ best music and sound award last year.

A poetic meditation on themes inspired by the history and fauna of a protected Midlothian peat bog near her rural home — particularly the 2,500 pink-footed geese who arrive annually from Greenland — the highly personal piece has been lauded for combining an evocative song cycle with memoir, social history and myth.

Fresh from being named folk singer of the year at last week’s Radio 2 Folk Awards, high-flying Karine is set to touch down at Perth Theatre for a sixdate run of Wind Resistance, directed by Wils Wilson.

Featuring original songs by the former Malinky and Battlefield Band frontwoman, the show previously enjoyed two capital runs, as well as stagings last year at Celtic Connections and in Dumfries, Belfast and Dublin.

Mother-of-two Karine says thoughts on midwifery, ecology, sanctuary and solidarity came together in curiosity at her feathered visitors’ flight patterns.

“I’ve been living in the Pathhead area for about 12 years and like most people I love it when the geese come in,” she explains.

“Fala Moor is really unremarkable in Scottish terms but it’s a place I love to go and walk. It’s the most open and expansive place in my area, with an amazing vista right across the Forth Valley and up and over the

Lammermuirs. I’d see the geese flying over my back garden and I landed on the idea that literally they’re cutting the wind resistance for one another and taking turns in who’s leading and who’s following,” she continues

“The other main thing historically in this area was this huge medieval hospital on the hill at Soutra overlooking the moor. It was really quite a vast settlement and also a place of sanctuary and healing, like the moor is for the geese.”

The Dundee University politics and philosophy graduate says she felt empowered writing about life in her close-knit community.

“The people whose stories I tell in the show are unassuming farmers, none of them are celebrities,” adds Karine, who was trained by a movement coach for her lively narrator’s role.

“They’re quiet stories but to me

“Most of us are small and ordinary but that doesn’t mean that we don’t matter

there’s a lot of power in that. It involves the story of people that I care about and the birth of my son. There are so many threads to it that’re very personal it felt amazing to be given back-up to go and immerse myself in all of that.

“Most of us are small and ordinary but that doesn’t mean that we don’t matter.”

One light-hearted moment occurs when football lover Karine, 47, recounts Aberdeen winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1983. “I was testing out the first trial of the piece when a pal came up and told me Alex Ferguson’s obsessed with geese and talks about them all the time at after-dinner speeches,” she laughs.

“It turns out that it was one of these big coaching metaphors he used when he was at Man Utd and Aberdeen and coaching the Ryder Cup golf team. It’s a connection that sounds like it shouldn’t be possible but in my head it all makes perfect sense.”

Karine’s successful entry into theatre has led to a spin-off album – A Pocket Of Wind Resistance – with sound designer Pippa Murphy, and she’s also written a linked children’s book for publication in the autumn.

Hopes are high for a London stage run next year, while there’s also been American interest.

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