Ballad Lines musical at Southwark Playhouse Elephant – review

As London mourns the departure of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, down at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant, there’s another folk musical that might steal your heart. Finn Anderson and Tania Azevedo’s Ballad Lines was last seen in Stirling in 2023 under its previous title, A Mother’s Song. Brimming with ambition and warmth, it has the makings of the next brilliant thing.

We begin in present-day New York, where Sarah has moved in with her girlfriend Alix. She rediscovers a box bequeathed to her by her estranged Aunt Betty, the contents revealing a family history spanning many generations. There’s Cait from 17th-century Scotland and Jean in Ireland 100 years later, who makes the crossing to the Appalachian Mountains, both bringing with them their traditional songs. As Sarah connects with her ancestors’ stories, her vision of her own future begins to change.

Touching on family, identity and motherhood, there’s a lot to pack in and some characters inevitably feel less rounded than others, but Azevedo directs with great fluidity. Overlapping scenes are convincing and work well with excellent pacing, aided by Tinovimbanashe Sibanda’s vigorous choreography, which creates almost constant movement, but occasionally feels too busy for the space.

In a formidable cast of eight, Frances McNamee shows gorgeous vocals as Sarah, displaying great chemistry with Sydney Sainté, who is calm and funny as Alix. Rebecca Trehearn is impressively poised as Betty. As pastor’s wife Cait, Kirsty Findlay shows off a crystalline voice and as free-spirit Jean, an optimistic Yna Tresvalles is hugely likeable. Gracie Lai and Siân Louise Dowdalls provide enthusiastic ensemble support, and Ally Kennard deftly switches between various male roles.

The theme of motherhood and female choice runs deep in the production; Sarah realises she wants a child, Cait battles with an unwanted pregnancy, and Jean defies convention by having a child outside wedlock.

Anderson and Azevedo’s book makes clear that even today, we have not achieved complete female autonomy. Judgement is still piled on women whether they choose to be mothers or not; be they straight or queer, married or single. In this context, it’s refreshing to see the peripheral male characters not painted as cartoon villains.

Anderson’s beautiful music focuses on folk melodies, with a rich base of musical theatre and intelligent lyrics. Uplifting and emotional, the foot-stomping “Prologue” is a cracking start to the show that refrains throughout. Traditional songs are judiciously adapted, such as the haunting 16th-century “The Four Marys” and the lyrical bluegrass “Handsome Molly”. There are also gorgeous harmonies in the act two opener, “Queen Among the Heather”. Overall, the music is incredibly strong, but a few songs could be lost, including the indiscriminate ballads at the end of the show, which outstay their welcome.

TK Hay’s set uses Sarah and Alix’s apartment as its base, with echoes of the Atlantic crossings in a dual-level decked floor and a wooden ship’s skeleton overhead. A vast fringed curtain shaped like a mountain sits as the backdrop, nodding to the West Virginian landscape. It is simple, but effective.

Ballad Lines has been nearly ten years in the making and shows a solidity and confidence in itself that is wonderful to witness. Heartwarming, poignant and deeply human, it has the potential to go far.