Off-Broadway Review: THE STRANGE UNDOING OF PRUDENCIA HART (The Club Car at McKittrick Hotel)

A PUB CRAWL FROM FOLKLORE INTO FANTASY

When a show is called The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, you can bet that it’s going to be a bit surreal, somewhat disturbing and ultimately captivating. The production that bears this name, which opened March 17 in The Club Car of The McKittrick Hotel (home of Sleep No More), does not disappoint.

Created by David Greig (writer) and Wils Wilson (director) and produced by the National Theatre of Scotland, the cast features five performers, Ewan Black, Charlene Boyd, Charlie West, Natali McCleary, and Gavin Jon Wright, who act, sing and play musical instruments as they narrate the sad story of Prudencia, an Edinburgh academic obsessed with Scottish ballads.

The pivotal events begin when Prudencia attends a conference of others obsessed with the same subject. They’re in Kelso, a Scottish border town, and Scotland, as everyone who has ever seen Macbeth knows, is the home of witches and ghosts. So it should be no surprise that her adventures are replete with disappearances, death, the devil and forced captivity.

A good deal of the story is told in rhyme, mostly in language appropriate to academics. It’s a bit forced, but it’s also a lot of fun.

The show was designed for pubs, and the audience is seated at small tables, which allows for considerable interaction with the actors who roam about the room and occasionally hop onto those tables. Those in attendance are encouraged to sing and clap their hands. One lucky patron becomes the handlebars of a motorcycle in a particularly innovative scene.

Much of the action takes place by candlelight, which adds considerably to the foreboding atmosphere. The actors move sinuously and sensually. There’s enormous sexual repression here waiting to burst free. There are battles, both physical and mental, of epic proportions.

At two and a half hours, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart is a bit too long. The second act could easily have ended most appropriately before the show finally concludes. But fueled by drinks purchased at the bar, which is open before the show and during intermission, most people will probably not mind.

But even if you don’t drink, the mood of debouched revelry will probably carry you away to the end.

photos by Lena Nicholson