Tam Lin (A Halloween tale of magic & seduction) has a wonderful old Scottish ballad as inspiration (in fact, it bills itself as “a new play based on a traditional Scottish ballad). Playwright Nancy McLernan first became familiar with the ballad through the recording of English folk-rockers Fairport Convention. She’s not the first artist to be drawn into the magic of this strange tale in which a girl becomes pregnant by an elfin knight and has to redeem him from the fairy queen on Halloween. Pamela Dean’s first novel was called Tam Lin and was set on a college campus, and the tale weaves strongly into Carolyn Parkhurst’s acclaimed novel The Dogs of Babel . Mergatroyd Productions presentation of McLernan’s adaptation is lovingly done; it is its second annual production and the show looks likely to become an annual favorite.

Care is taken to set a magical mood; enchanting music by Erika Lieberman (from the CD Satyrs and Sirens, www.harpiegirl.com) is effective pre-show music, and harp chords are beautifully coordinated with elf-ish spells. The first scene of the show is particularly good: the queen and her knights emerge from the dark in fluorescent costumes under black light that are startling and gorgeous. Their capture and seduction of Tam Lin (who calls himself Thomas) is interesting and a little creepy.

McLernan fills in the ballad’s spare stanzas by adding a local feud and an arranged marriage as backstory for brave Janet, and a trio of lusty, jealous elfin knights vying for the attentions of the fairy queen. These are logical and intelligent extensions of the ballad but not particularly magical ones, and the ballad often comes bumping down to earth. McLernan has the fairy court speak in rhyme while the Scottish noblemen speak in prose; the concept is good but the execution is uneven. The lusty jokes are often embarrassing, and clash with the spare poetry of the ballad’s dialogue that McLernan imports wherever she can. The play seems a cross between a Renaissance Faire playlet and a lesser Disney animation (complete with tomboy princess); it does not go far enough in either modern comedy nor in traditional wonder. Only rarely does it capture the savagery and strangeness of the Scottish original. One of the places in which it does enchant is in the final transformation in which Janet must hold tight to Tam Lin through the fairy queen’s enchantments that turn him into a snake, a lion, and more. Kudos to Mergatroyd Productions’ design team here, particularly mask designer Barry Weil, costume designer Carla Gant, and lighting designer Ben Tronnier.

McLernan’s script would be greatly improved by severe cutting and rigorous attention to tone. The not-untalented actors often begin with strong choices that are not then developed, so that Queen of the Faireis Vielka Kelly channels the sing-song delivery of the TV show “Bewitched”’s Esmeralda; Mike Durell as Lord Dunbar, Janet’s father blusters-but-means-well in every circumstance. Director Stephen Riscica creates some nice stage pictures but has not brought out nuanced performances nor set consistency of style and movement. Only Talura Harms, as the clever, lusty servingwoman Margaret, carries her performance off completely. Her humor is natural, understated and effective; she’s also one of the actors who really listens to her scene partners. The choice to omit any hint of a Scottish accent while using Scottish place names and terms is jarring: a Scottish accent, like a Boston, Georgia or Dublin accent, really is something in the speakers’ mouth and not just the ears of the hearer. Without any strong choice to replace it, even the noble Aberdeen, played appealingly and winningly by Troy Acree, sounds so contemporary that when he forlornly tries to woo Janet he sounds as though he walked off of the Drew Carey show. Skid Maher, who plays Sterling in the human realm, MacDougal in the fairy realm, tries to emulate John Cleese in both accent and gesture—a choice which supposedly is meant to indicate that he’s speaking French. Choices and styles like that need to be crystal clear to work, and here they aren’t.

The program nicely gives notes on some of the Scottish terminology in the play, but unfortunately the notes suggest more attention to research and style and we expect more “otherness” in this world. However, Tam Lin is a good idea and it’s nice to see a company work so hard to support work based in legend, on a holiday theme. It’s not yet completely baked, but with some more time in the oven and a bit more blending of ingredients it could become a tasty treat by next Halloween.