The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart
Sir Walter Scott’s collection of the Border Ballads is a great jumping off point for David Greig’s modern folk tale of an earnest academic, Prudencia Hart, setting out in search of enlightenment at a literary conference in Kelso.
There is some Steeleye Span-style folk rock, if you like that sort of thing, and a free wee dram at the interval if you want to give the sponsors your email address. Madeleine Worrall plays Prudencia with spinsterish winsomeness and only comes alive when she sings. Otherwise, the jollity of it all seemed forced to me, and over-reliant on the good fortune of being played out in the wonderful new vaulted space of the Ghillie Due, one of the city’s great pubs next to the Caledonian Hotel.