The Welkin

A second performance (of three) for Lucy Kirkwood’s feminist twist on Twelve Angry Men, with the courtroom made up of bickering, bantering women who must decide the outcome of a heinous crime in rural Suffolk in 1759. Sally Poppy is sentenced to hang for murder but claims to be pregnant, which would mean she escapes execution; a jury of 12 matrons are gathered to decide whether she’s telling the truth.

It’s a really interesting play, not least because so many of the characters are flawed – Sally herself is not an attractive person – and no matter how good the bitching and binding among the women, ultimately they’re supporting the patriarchal, misogynistic legal system that condemns a woman on a man’s word (which in this case is Sally’s cuckolded husband). And there are some great parts for women, especially the midwife who takes the lead as Sally’s principal defender.

There is a final performance on 23 June.