On Thursday I was at the London premiere of Ballad Lines by Finn Anderson and Tania Azevedo. It was produced at Southwark Elephant by Katy Lipson and Kate Taylor. I am delighted to see some wonderful reviews coming through with 4* and 5* celebrations of this powerful musical drama.
It is my pleasure to meet with writers and producers as they explore the pathway to realise their vision in a commercially sound and joyous way. Many shows don’t get off the ground. A few take flight. And a very few have dedicated enough writers and champions to move from page to stage to next stage and eventually to commercial stage.
I first saw A Mother’s Song, as it was then called, in 2018 performed by a cast of students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the American Music Theatre Project of Chicago. Here a cast of 30 post grad actors, all female from memory, brought to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe audience, the core themes of the show we still see today. It explored how traditional Scottish ballads had been passed through generations and across oceans, from mother to daughter and onward. New music was blended with traditional song and we cheered at the power of the women’s stories.
AMTP Chicago continued to offer space and time for Finn and Tania to shape the piece, at which point the Scottish producer Kate Taylor began to work with them to see whether a full professional production might be possible. Immense thanks must go to the then Director of the Macrobert Arts Centre in Stirling, Julie Ellen, who agreed to co-produce it with Kate. The development time was extended over the many lockdown periods of covid leading first to a concert in 2022 and then to a full production in February 2023.
We are blessed in the UK to have government funding for the arts, and especially in Scotland where Creative Scotland really champion new Scottish voices and the development of new work. The Macrobert production was supported from the National Lottery through the Creative Scotland Open Fund. Later a brand-new 17-track studio album, also supported by Creative Scotland with National Lottery funding, was created in 2025, now under its new title.
Ballad Lines is a multi generational weaving narrative across 3 countries and 3 timezones. Finding the dramatic focus to ensure an audience feels connected and emotionally focussed was the challenge for the writers. The core themes have been consistent over this 10 year period, but audiences & critics this week in Southwark are confirming that they have risen to the challenge. The narrative balances the specificity of individual lives with the universality across centuries of motherhood. The show explores female agency and freedom.
It is wonderful to track this path now in hindsight:
- A commission to start the idea and give the writers a little space to invent.
- An educational establishment offering time, talent and space to bring it to life.
- A championing producer in Kate finding practical pathways towards full production.
- A willing co-producer in Julie with time, talent and space to create a professional first life.
- A funding agency with National Lottery support able to support r&d and first productions.
- A cheering audience in Stirling, and an amazing cast to give the stories heart & voice.
- The determination of the writers to work together as friends and challengers.
- A London producer, Katy, who saw the potential of this folk song driven drama.
- and these two co-producers raised the money and had the drive to steer this project to a series of sellout previews and a wonderful London Premiere.
And now this is when hindsight stops and future-dreaming takes over. It is my hope that the strong pre-marketing, the really wonderfully intelligent and glowing reviews (see two links below) , and the track record of the producers and the venue, will all cause the show to sell really well. If the buzz of full houses is possible over the 7 week run then it will be clear to other theatres in the UK and around the world, that this new original Scottish musical has a long-life ahead of it.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/jan/30/ballad-lines-review-southwark-playhouse-borough-london
https://www.allthatdazzles.co.uk/post/review-ballad-lines-southwark-playhouse-elephant
I hope, in years to come, the next generation of students at the RCS in Glasgow and AMTP in Chicago will be able to perform a large cast version of the show that their alum predecessors helped to bring to life.
I hope audiences will relish the complexity of this interweaving narrative, and feel their hearts opened, and even at times broken, by the emotional power of these female life stories. I hope the album will keep selling and the music will be played around the world. And I hope that those members of the original cast who are not already household names in London will go forward to amazing roles showcasing their skills. Finn and Tania are blessed with a wonderful cast and creative team for this show.
For any writer or early career producer there is a lot to learn from looking at this pathway. I was with two new writers earlier the same day of the Premier looking at the future pathway for their potentially highly commercial and joyous new work. Next step for them is to excite the next champion for the work – a theatre, a director, a producer but they have already produced a first professional proof of concept production, so they are a long way on the path.
I will be running sessions for producers from Malta, Japan, Korea and Ukraine over this year, as well as with Producers’ Pool on zoom or London, and CGO Institute courses in London. This Ballad Lines pathway makes a great workshop tool.
And here’s where to book: https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/ballad-lines/