Folk tale returns for a new theatre tour

A celebrated folk theatre fable from the National Theatre of Scotland is preparing for new dates at home and in the USA.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart will be touring to Edinburgh, Mull, Oban, and North Carolina (USA) from 14 May to 9 June.

Created by David Greig (writer) and Wils Wilson (director) with designer Georgia McGuinness, composer Alasdair Macrae and movement by Janice Parker, the cast includes George Drennan, Jessica Hardwick, Owen Whitelaw, Peter Hannah and Gwendolen Chatfield.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart show takes over and transforms non-traditional performance spaces to weave an innovative and immersive theatrical experience.

This year the show will open in Edinburgh on 14 May, returning to the city and the Assembly Roxy for the first time since 2014, before visiting the west coast for performances in Oban and Mull.

he show will then head back to the USA from 31 May for a two-week run at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, North Carolina, one of North American’s premier performing arts festivals.

Since premiering in Glasgow in 2011 The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart has enjoyed phenomenal success both at home and abroad, touring extensively to audience and critical acclaim across the world. In keeping with the show’s site-specific origins it is often staged in non-traditional theatre spaces, popping up in taverns, village halls, bars and breweries.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (Photo: Pete Dibdin)

In 2016 the show embarked on an extensive Scottish and US tour, culminating in a six-month residency at New York’s famous McKittrick Hotel, home of Punchdrunk Theatre’s wildly acclaimed show Sleep No More. The show was awarded the 2017 Drama Desk Award for Best Unique Theatrical Experience.

One wintry morning, Prudencia Hart, an uptight academic, sets off to attend a conference in Kelso in the Scottish Borders. As the snow begins to fall, little does she know who or what awaits her there.

Delivered in a riotous romp of rhyming couplets, devilish encounters and wild karaoke – Prudencia’s dream-like journey of self-discovery unfolds among and around the audience.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart takes theatre into pubs and other unlikely venues, where stories are told, re-told, sung and passed on. Audiences are invited to share a lock-in with the National Theatre of Scotland’s company of actors and musicians and to indulge in an evening of supernatural storytelling, music and theatre inspired by the Border Ballads, Robert Burns and the poems of Robert Service.

Touring to Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh (14 to 19 May); Bunessan Hall, Mull (23 May); Aros Hall, Tobermory, Mull (24 May); Corran Hall, Oban (25 May); Spoleto Festival (Charleston, South Carolina) – Woolfe Street Playhouse (31 May to 9 June).

Full tour and ticket information are available HERE.