Karine Polwart: Windblown
★★★★★ Beautiful
The Queen’s Hall (Venue 72): Sat 9 – Wed 13 Aug 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
Karine Polwart: Windblown, presented by Raw Material at the Queen’s Hall for five days only, is a magnificent combination of music, storytelling, poetry and theatre.
Writer, director, composer and performer Karine Polwart and Pippa Murphy, co-composer and sound designer are reunited in a stage production nearly a decade on from the monumental Wind Resistance.
Karine Polwart in Windblown. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic.
This production also takes its cue from the natural world, dealing with a centuries-old Sabal Palm in the glasshouses in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Too old and too unsteady to survive any move as the botanics are refurbished, the venerable tree is destined for the chainsaw.
There is a great generosity and openhearted tunefulness to the entire production, which is seemingly understated in its focus, but with a weight far beyond its apparent concerns.
It is difficult to imagine a more ‘Made In Edinburgh’ show than this in some ways. It would be impossible to count how many people over the years saw the massive palm tree (either in the hothouse or witnessing it trying to poke through the glass roof) or how many others would recognise the local references.
universal resonance
It’s not a remotely parochial affair, however. The themes – ecological collapse, conservation, the strictures of Covid lockdowns, belonging, colonialism – have universal resonance.
And above all, it’s astonishingly beautiful. Polwart’s measured, inviting storytelling and magnificent singing are matched by Dave Milligan’s wonderful piano playing, inflected as so often by equal parts jazz and Scottish traditions.
Karine Polwart in Windblown. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic.
The music hangs in the air, aided by Murphy’s astounding sound design, which adds appropriate and effective sounds from other sources.
The design of Neil Haynes is also wonderfully appropriate, looming over proceedings without dominating them, and matched by Jamie Wardrop’s video design and Lizzie Powell’s lighting.
Janice Parker’s movement direction adds to Polwart’s overall direction, which is extremely astute, creating a spectacle that is at once intimate and imposing.
beautifully clever
One of the direction’s greatest strengths is the way that it makes everything seem natural. Similarly, the structure of the piece is beautifully clever. Many might be expecting a series of songs with links that are a shade longer than usual, but it’s far cleverer than that.
It’s unfair to give much away, but for example, apparently throwaway references inform a later performance of Burns’s The Silver Tassie which is absolutely heartbreaking.
Karine Polwart in Windblown. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic.
The production is undoubtedly melancholy and elegiac, but also stands as a testament to nature and humanity’s place in it. The short run (and admittedly high ticket prices) might put some off, and this will surely come back, but you should take the chance to see it now if you possibly can.
Sheer beauty and skill are on offer in a production which is the best of its type since – well, since Wind Resistance probably.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
The Queen’s Hall, 85-89 Clerk St, EH8 9JG. (Venue 72).
Saturday 9 – Wednesday 13 August 2025.
Daily: 7.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Raw Materials website: www.rawmaterialarts.com
Facebook: @RAWMaterialArts
Instagram: @raw_material_arts
Karine Polwart in Windblown. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic.
ENDS
