It’s always a good sign when the songs from a new musical are playing in your head on the way home. Ballad Lines, now playing at Southwark Playhouse Elephant, has this pleasing effect.
Written by Finn Anderson (book, composer/lyricist) and Tania Azevedo (book), and directed by Azevedo, this has all the ingredients to make the next great musical.
Sarah (Frances McNamee) and Alix (Sydney Sainté) have moved into their new home, and in sorting out possessions to be sent to goodwill, a box from Sarah’s Aunt Betty is revealed.
This box will take Sarah, and us, into her family’s past, back through generations, to follow the stories of two ancestors, Cait and Jean, and the ballads they pass down.
The eight-strong cast and three musicians (all female save one actor) are impeccable whether raising their voices together or beating a rhythm with their bodies.
Starting back in Scotland, through Ulster and into the Appalachian settlers in the USA, Ballad Lines reveals the cost, and freedom, of making your own decisions as a woman.
Cait (Kirsty Findlay) is married to a minister (Ally Kennard) who views the sanctity and marriage and birth of children as a God-given blessing. Jean (Yna Tresvalles) is fifteen, given to toying with sailors, and in an unhappy, poor Ireland.
Sarah, as half of a lesbian couple, clearly can’t get pregnant accidentally but her biological clock is ticking. In hearing the stories of the women in her past, a desire comes to the surface.
The songs are perhaps light on lyrical depth at times, but the stories they tell win through. There is a certain predictability of a minister’s wife not wanting a baby, or a widower seeking a bride, or even a redneck family disowning the ‘unnatural’.
But these are stories that still need to be told, and the old ballads, passed through generations, nationalities, and countries, can do that. Each member of the cast has their moment to make the most of the melodies.
Gracie Lai, Sîan Louise Dowdalls, and Rebecca Trehearn (as Aunt Betty, the storyteller) offer strong vocals and skilfull support to the story, as Sarah reacts and interacts to the women who went before her.
TK Hay’s stage design offers a wooden deck that doubles as the modern home and various settings from the stories of the past. Tinovimbanashe Sibanda’s choreography offers fire and grit to proceedings.
Ballad Lines caused quite a buzz with the press night audience, with comparisons drawn to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Come From Away and even Spring Awakening. It feels good to see a female-led musical with such power making its way on to the stage here.
Do not miss this one, as it will grow and surely find a larger (and more expensive!) home in its future. Enjoy this first chapter in its journey right now.
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Ballad Lines continues at Southwark Playhouse Elephant until 21 Mar 2026 with details here.
Photo credit: Pamela Raith