WOMEN’s hidden histories have become a fertile area for study, for musical and artistic discovery, and for theatre. Community playwright Stephanie Dale draws on the many women of Dorset who made remarkable contributions to the lives of women of their own time, and down to ours, to create a play that explores their legacy and the impact their histories have on Sam (Samantha), a 21st century 23 year-old Dorset-based archaeologist who is searching to find her own identity in troubled times.

Unearthed has important stories to tell, but ultimately it is overwhelmed by them. There are women listed in the programme whom we barely notice on stage – or don’t see at all – and there are women whose stories we want to know much more about …
Lilian Bader, one of the first women to join the RAF – we guess she is an airwoman with her jump-suit and goggles, but that’s all;
Journalist Mary Frances Billington, who helped establish the Southern Echo (whose Bournemouth offshoot was where both of the FTR editors began their journalistic careers). Why did she go to India? We want to know more.
Hilda Coles helped to found Wimborne Museum – but what of her wartime service?

We meet some women whose stories help to bring this complicated play to life – poor Thirza Jefford, illiterate, imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread, dead at 32, and another young victim, the 14th century teenage saint and martyr St Juthwara from Halstock, beheaded by her step-brother when her step-mother falsely claimed she was pregnant. Caroline Norton, a mid-19th century social reformer and women’s advocate, makes a powerful impression not only on Sam but on the audience, as does the formidable Violet Cross, who nursed injured soldiers on the front line in the First World War.

The framing device for the play is Sam (Tilda Sansom), running away after yet another row with her mother (Rebecca Hilton.) Sam has a fall and finds herself in a mysterious place, where she is greeted by various women. She thinks she has come to a party – it is her birthday – and the women around her are in fancy dress. Gradually she is drawn into this parallel world, and begins to talk about her own life.

There is a huge cast of women from all over Dorset, directed by Penny Levick, with music from the on-stage WODsters band, and some enjoyable new and traditional folk songs.

It is interesting and often moving, but with so many people on stage, and so many stories to tell, it is often muddled and confusing. The opening, inevitably scene-setting, feels slow, but at other times there is so much happening that you struggle to see who is speaking. Some of the actors project well – Emilia Constant as St Juthwara is outstanding, and Hannah Whiter, although with a much softer voice, tells Thirza’s sad story clearly – but others are hard to hear, particularly when the band is also playing.

Overall, there is much to enjoy and think about, but Unearthed feels a little under-rehearsed, and more like a work-in-progress than a fully-fledged community play. It would be great to see it again, with perhaps fewer but better fleshed-out stories of these varied and fascinating historic women of Dorset.

FC

Photographs by Jayne Jackson