It’s hard not to be inspired and astounded at the confidence, devotion and commitment that Finn Anderson and Tania Azevedo have shown in getting Ballad Lines onto the stage. It’s been about a decade in the making, with Anderson delivering the music and lyrics while collaborating with Azevedo on the book. From workshops in Chicago and tentative stagings at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2018), this show has evolved and finally landed, due to a lot of hard work and determination. Ballad Lines was first produced by KT Producing and Macrobert Arts Centre as A Mother’s Song and was originally commissioned by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and American Music Theatre Project.
It should also be noted that Azevedo and Anderson aren’t a pair of chancers who’ve winged it and landed on their feet. They epitomise double bubble pedigree on stilts. Finn Anderson is an Associate Artist at Lowry and was the Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer at Lowry and Hope Mill Theatre. As a singer-songwriter he’s released (and toured) two albums and was part of Bogha-Frois: Queer Voices in Folk, a crew of musicians working to grow visibility for LGBTQ+ stories in the Scottish folk tradition. Tania Azevedo is a celebrated Portuguese director and dramaturg, whose production of But I’m a Cheerleader (Turbine Theatre) garnered Off-West End Awards and Boadway World Award nominations for Best Director, and bagged the WhatsOnStage Award for Best Off West End Production. These two talents are like a queer Rogers and Hammerstein for the 21st century.
Ballad Lines highlights the cultural links between Scottish, Irish and Appalachian traditional music. It uses the story of a contemporary lesbian couple to unravel the roots of those folk music traditions. The ways in which the myths and rhythms of Celtic music travelled to Eastern United States via immigration (and slavery) reaches back to the 17th century. When Sarah (Frances McNamee) and Alix (Sydney Sainté) buy their first home together, Sarah unearths a box of memories and souvenirs left by her Aunt Betty (Rebecca Trehearn). The most arresting item in the box is an old cassette featuring an audio diary and recordings of Sarah as a child, singing with her aunt.
This treasure trove of tunes acts like a magical portal to the stories of women, dating back to 1609 when the English crown began the ‘Plantation of Ulster’. Through song, there’s a resurrection of ancestral ghosts, such as Cait (Kirsty Findlay) a 17th-century Scottish wife of a preacher and Jean (Yna Tresvalles) in Ireland 100 years later, who makes the crossing to the Appalachian Mountains. They both become vessels for a wealth of traditional songs. As Sarah vibes with her ancestors’ stories, she begins to reassess her future and a prior decision to avoid having children.
It’s hard to fault the musical aspect of this show. Long before this iteration of the production, the songs were performed live in a concert and the Studio Cast Recording of the soundtrack was released last year. The tunes are superb and will no doubt delight fans of musical theatre AND purists who like a live fiddle and a singalong at a céilí.
Frances McNamee has a gorgeous voice and the entire cast dazzle with harmonies and emotion that are truly moving. The traditional a cappella numbers, featuring percussion formed from foot stomping and body beating, proved utterly spellbinding. The contemporary numbers, while skilfully crafted, by comparison, lacked the dark drama and ancient simplicity of ballads that have endured for centuries.
Similarly, the parallel stories from Ireland and Scotland were a tad more engaging that the modern love story. In the second half, via an excellent flashback scene, we discover that the deceased Aunt Betty was a bit homophobic, which explains some of Sarah’s issues and makes her much more sympathetic as a character. It might have been wiser to give the audience that emotional colour much earlier on.
Yna Tresvalles as Jean was a joy to watch. Her commitment to every move, note and action was compelling. She threw her whole self into every action on stage with absolute gusto. Kirsty Findlay as Cait has a pure voice, perfect for ancient ballads, but any psychological motivations for seeking an abortion were left quite vague.
There’s much about Ballad Lines that wets my whistle. It’s refreshing to see a lesbian couple centre stage and a predominantly female cast, with women directing, casting and forming the band. Live music on stage, played well, is always a delight. One slight problem with digging into history that covers several hundred years is that one is forced to skip over a few parts that are awkward or complex. The musical and vocal traditions that came courtesy of enslaved people gets a brief mention, in reference to the banjo, which has West African roots. That gave us blues, jazz, R&B and rock and roll. Perhaps that deserves a deeper dive.
There is no mention of the fact that the 17th century King James ‘initiative’ of colonising Ireland and displacing the native Irish with Protestant settlers from Scotland and northern England led to bitter ethnic and sectarian conflict. The animosity provoked by this ethnic cleansing continued for centuries and exploded into The Troubles in the late 1960s. Many traditional Irish songs are solely concerned with this history.
To skip over this aspect of the narrative could be seen as either contentious or careless. As the Irish have sung of little else for centuries, it seems insanely glib to gloss over it. While this show is unlikely to be a hit in Dublin or Carrickmacross, it’s more than likely to transfer to the West End. With a bit more work, this could be an absolute smash.
Ballad Lines at Southwark Playhouse Elephant until 21st March 2026
Southwark Playhouse – Theatre and Stuff – Borough & Elephant
Reviewer: Stewart Who?
Reviewed: 29th January 2026
North West End UK Rating: