Rehearsal images released for major new folk musical BALLAD LINES

Ballad Lines is a heart-opening new musical which explores the stories we inherit and the choices each generation makes to break, reshape, or carry them forward. The production weaves together new songs with centuries-old traditional Scottish, Irish, and Appalachian ballads, which are performed live by an all-female band.

A forgotten melody pulls Sarah, a queer woman in New York, into the lives of the women who came before her: Cait, her 17th - century Scottish ancestor, and Jean, a spirited Irish teenager a century later. Across three centuries, they face the same defining question: what does it mean to become a mother and at what cost?

Originally titled 'A Mother's Song', the production began its life in 2014 when it was commissioned jointly by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Northwestern’s American Music Theatre Project. An earlier iteration of the musical received its world premiere in 2023 at Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling.

The cast features Frances McNamee (Girl from the North Country) as Sarah, Rebecca Trehearn (Showboat) as Betty, and Kirsty Findlay (Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour), who is reprising her role as Cait from an earlier iteration of the Scottish musical.

Completing the cast is Sydney Sainté (The Great Privation, Or How to Flip Ten Cents into a Dollar) as Alix; Ally Kennard (The Creakers) as Jamie, Thomas, Ronan/Dance Captain; Yna Tresvalles (Six the Musical) as Jean; Gracie Lai (Jersey Boys) as Morna/Ancestor (covers Betty, Alix, Jamie, Thomas, Ronan, Shona); and Siân Louise Dowdalls (Diana: The Musical) as Shona/Ancestor (covers Sarah, Cait, Jean, Morna).

The band is made up of Sally Simpson on violin, Isis Dunthorne on drums, Shonagh Murray on keys, and Madeline Salter on guitar.

Ballad Lines will play from 23 January - 21 March 2026 at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant.

Ballad Lines Tickets