Hidden Stories

OUR BRAND NEW PROJECT!  

Four new pieces from local writers.

Each of these original short playlets are around thirty minutes in length. Your ticket includes all four pieces. There will also be a short Q & A at the end of the evening.

The Saltiness Of Time by Shirley Jones

When Amelia stepped away from the life, she knew to become the primary caregiver for a frail and aging loved one, she had no idea how dramatically it would alter her life. Struck years on by the realisation that her "new normal" is nothing like the past and nowhere near what she had envisioned for her future how should she now be viewed by society? Selfless, foolish or a martyr?

Daughter Of The Waves by Lisa Lovell

Lisa is the child of Windrush parents. She has experienced racial discrimination all her life, but has fought these barriers throughout her career to become a senior manager. Very recently though Lisa experienced the worse racism and hostility she has ever faced. Everything she believed in was shaken to the core as people she thought were trusted colleagues, allies and friends colluded with the hostile environment policies put in place in the last few years. Lisa was on the verge of losing everything. It was only the support of true friends and the “kindness of strangers” as she describes them which pulled her through this terrible period in her life. Lisa tells her jaw dropping story in a compelling monologue.

Now You See Me by Carly Halse

The “hidden” story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain. The year was 1955. Ruth Ellis openly admitted to the murder of her lover David Blakely who she gunned down at the Magdala pub in London in 1953. What is little known though is that Blakely was violent and controlling. A few days before the murder he had brutally beaten Ruth Ellis and she suffered a miscarriage. At a time when she needed support and help her close male friend Desmond Cussen gave her a gun, showed her how to use it and drove her to the Magdala pub. Yet he was never called to account. Her case led to changes in the law recognising the defence of “diminished responsibility”.

Darlint Peidi by Rosemary Hill

The story of Edith Thompson who was executed in 1923 alongside her young lover, Frederick Bywaters. Edith Thompson apparently knew nothing about the plan to murder her husband, Percy. Bywaters always maintained he acted alone. But Thompson was older than him and an adulterer. She was seen as an immoral seducer. She was also a dreamer who wrote letters to her lover which depicted their perfect life together after her husband had gone. Was she really executed for committing adultery rather than murder? Was she a victim of the social climate of the time? Her case is now seen as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.

Purchase your tickets directly from MK Gallery.  They are going fast so don’t wait!

We hope you are able to join us for an inspiring evening of Hidden Stories.