The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart

Perth Theatre’s Redrooms March 14 - 15

FRESH FROM a triumphant run in the USA, an award-winning, globe-trotting and much-loved National Theatre of Scotland production, created by writer David Greig, comes to Perth as part of a short Scottish tour.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart is a raucous story inspired by the supernatural storytelling, barnstorming live music and theatre of traditional Border Ballads, and the poems of Robert Burns and Robert Service. Described as “part ceilidh, part lock-in”, the show takes theatre into pubs, village halls and other unlikely venues, where stories are told, re-told, sung and passed on.

The energetic play centres on Prudencia Hart, an uptight academic who sets off one wintry morning bound for a conference in Kelso. Her specialist subject is Borders Ballads, but the conference does not go well. On realising she has been snowed in, she and a fellow folklorist seek refuge in a local pub.

Amidst the drink, music and debauchery, Prudencia becomes caught up in a supernatural Border Ballad of her own. Her dreamlike journey of self-discovery unfolds among and around the audience, delivered in a riotous rhyme of couplets, devilish encounters and wild karaoke and song.

David developed the story with friends during a residency in December 2009 when they were supposed to be travelling to the Highlands but were snowed in in Fife. The line: “It’s difficult to know where to start, with the strange undoing of Prudencia Hart” came to him in a dream and the play developed from there.

It premiered in the Victorian Bar at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre in 2011, before achieving phenomenal success and critical acclaim at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Actor and musicianAly Macrae has been touring with the show from the beginning. “We went on a couple of expeditions to the Borders in 2010 to find out about the ballads and had a cheeky wee session in Kelso Folk Club,” he says. “There are so many elements to the show and it takes people by surprise.”

The production has undertaken the longest international tour by the National Theatre of Scotland to date, spanning four continents, nine countries and 46 different venues and wooing critics and audiences alike when it was presented by the Royal Court Theatre in London last summer and in the USA earlier this year.

When Prudencia was performed at Blair Atholl Village Hall in Perthshire, the audience went “wild”, says Aly. “We play a lot of weel kent songs and old traditional folk songs and when we played The Braes of Killiecrankie, people were up on their feet and singing along like nothing we’d experienced! It was fantastic enthusiasm.”

The US audiences were a different kettle of fish, however. “There are certain nuances of Scotland and things about a night in a Scottish pub that you might only understand if you’re Scottish. So when we performed in the likes of Santa Monica, Texas and Miami, some things were probably lost on audiences. What went down really well were the fantasy and supernatural elements; the Americans loved the devils, fairies and sprites.”

As the show takes the form of a pub session, it involves many of the folk instruments you might expect at a ceilidh. There are pipes, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, whistles, guitars, the bodhran, a table top Indian harmonium and loads of shaky eggs.

When it comes to audience participation, Aly says people can’t help themselves from joining in. But it’s not the kind of production where cast members pick on people and drag them from their seats.

“It’s more that people help to create the environment. They can sing along and there are lots of opportunities for them to make noise and contribute during the course of the show. It’s set in mid-winter in the middle of a blizzard so we get people to make snow out of napkins. There’s a fine line to tread though; we want it to be informal and relaxed but we also want people to hear what’s being said.”

So what can those who go along to the Redrooms expect? Will they learn more about ballads and Scottish poets, or is it just a case of enjoying the music and rollicking banter?

“Well they will definitely coming out feeling loosened up!” laughs Aly. “Some folk might understand certain references to ballads, form and structure – there’s a whole section at a border ballad conference – and the show looks at conflicting ideas people have about these things. They’ll definitely hear ballads and stories told in dramatic form. The show is supported by Benromach Single Malt Whisky and there’s a free dram thrown in; what more could folk want?”

PerthTheatre has been closed to the public, prior to restoration and redevelopment, but it reopens its Redrooms space for the shows tonight and tomorrow.

Colin McMahon, chief executive of HorsecrossArts, the creative organisation behind Perth Concert Hall and Perth Theatre says: “While the theatre is currently undergoing exciting development work, we are able to use the Redrooms to stage this fantastic cabaret format show, giving our audiences the chance to see this critically acclaimed and award-winning production in Perth.”

Aly Macrae (above): “People help to create the environment. They can sing along and there are lots of opportunities for them to make noise and contribute during the course of the show.”