June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me

Glasgow actor Charlene Boyd sometimes sings as June Carter Cash in a tribute band and here, for her playwriting debut, stitches her own story together with her musical heroine’s.

Boyd gives a dynamo performance, swapping sequin cowboy hats and dancing clogs in front of the crowd. We sit at cabaret tables, unwittingly storing props and wardrobe for Boyd’s next whistlestop visit.

Taking a beautifully nutso, maximalist approach to set design and staging, the busy room is dolled up with thrift store charms and there’s a band onstage, inspired by Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe. Appalachian mountain landmarks and margarita cocktails accessorise the room. Escapist fantasies rub against a clothes horse drying manky Scottish dishtowels.

The frenzied, inventive staging occasionally gets in the way of the storytelling. This rich feminist tale of two gutsy working mothers – hellbent on following their dreams, battling workplace sexism and navigating rocky relationships – needs more pauses for breath, so more of the harsh truths can land properly. Boyd doesn’t walk the line, she runs it. The strong themes of artist authenticity, grit and compromise feel diluted sometimes, but gripes aside, it can’t takeaway from the power of Carter Cash’s legacy, and her superfan’s dogged devotion.