The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart

Four wine glasses are rung, shredded white napkins are thrown, and suddenly we’re in the Scottish Borders on a snowy mid winter’s eve, our ears pricked for magic. A theatre ballad told in a pub by five folk musicians, National Theatre of Scotland’s resourcefully staged tale of an uptight academic’s encounter with the devil (she’s a collector of ballads, he’s a collector of souls) has all the raucous energy of a lock-in. But like it’s heroine, beset by trendy postmodern discourse on “the battle narrative of happy slappers”, it also believes in beauty. So we get an enactment of Tam Lin using bar room peanuts and a karaoke version of Kylie (Horatio’s was an inspired choice) that quavers with eternal truths. Storytelling at its most transcendent.

Horatio’s Bar, 23 May 2012

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