Published January 2020 via Nick Hern Books
★★★★
1759: Sally has been sentenced to hang for murder—but first a jury of matrons has been enlisted to determine whether Sally is, as she claims, pregnant. They don't want to be there. She doesn't particularly want them there. Law enforcement doesn't particularly want them there, and the crowds outside howling for blood certainly don't want them there...but there they are.
This makes for a fascinating and dark and funny play that is simultaneously devastating—a reminder of how little women's words can count, and how little sympathy there is for women who stray outside the narrow lines society has painted for them. The question here is not whether Sally is guilty: none of the 'ten angry women' involved has any expectation that Sally will survive, and the goal is simply to determine when she will die. Only the midwife goes in ready to defend her, ready to believe that she might be pregnant; everyone else's assessments are based on what others will think and Sally's class status and whether they can get home in time to finish the chores. But Lizzy, the midwife, harbors secrets too, and nobody comes out of this unscathed.
An excellent, if depressing, start to 2025.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.