When did you last attend a show where a 200-year-old Sabal Bermudana palm tree was the main protagonist in a show about human kindness, colonialism, nurturing love, selflessness, climate change, and horticulture? Maybe you’d think there was no need for such a thing, but ‘Windblown’ by Karine Polwart, with revered jazz musician Dave Milligan on piano, makes a strong case to the contrary.

Polwart shot to theatrical stardom courtesy of her sensuous 2017 Royal Lyceum production of ‘Wind Resistance’, a biographical story of life near a peat bog in Fala in the Scottish Borders. Given this show’s title you might have imagined this would be a companion piece, but although it’s biographical again, this is a very different beast.

For a start, the tree (which commands centre stage in a four-metre collage of leaves that bears comparison to a giant Native American Wind Catcher) has quite a lot to say, or sing, for itself. Polwart tells, and sings, us her story of the mighty specimen’s demise as a consequence of the refurbishment of The Royal Botanical Garden’s decaying hot houses.

The central tropical Palm House has, in fact, already been extended to accommodate Sabal Bermudan’s giant body. But it’s for the axe, and to commemorate this sad occasion Polwart has convinced the somewhat doubting Royal Botanical Gardens’ keepers that before the axe finally swings the tree should have a living wake for a select band of mourners to celebrate its life.

What is remarkable about this show is that Polwart manages to turn this unremarkable happening into a multi-layered whydunnit.  We know the tree is to pass on but why, and where did it come from (Bermuda as it happens) and how will future generation be able to enjoy its progeny? How did it live this long?

The story is aided by brilliant sound design (Pippa Murphy), elegant digital animation and a very supportive hand from The Queen’s Hall itself.

It’s a towering achievement.  Intense, quiet (as is Polwart’s way) immensely thought-provoking and simply beautiful. ‘An organism is a cathedral of complexity, both sovereign and independent,’ observed essayist Maria Popova and it’s clear that Polwart has done her utmost to prove this in a compelling and gorgeous hour of highly original entertainment.

‘Windblown‘ is at The Queen’s Hall – Auditorium until Wed 13 Aug 2025 at 19:30