Our friends at SHOUTING Softly Swindon have announced a brand new play inspired by female experience in Swindon. You are invited to attend the free script in hand performances of ‘Fire and Milk’, a play which has developed out of the project.
Supported by the Arts Council, Shouting Softly Swindon is a community playwriting project, working with young women aged 14 to 25 in and around Swindon. Artistic Director Rebecca Mordan has been mentoring Flis Tattersall on this project.
The play has evolved out of the historical research exploring female histories in Swindon whilst working with teams at the Local Studies library, STEAM, Museum and Art Swindon, Lydiard House, and Swindon Preservation Trust. SHOUTING Softly Swindon have also worked with their partners Prime Theatre, Create Studios and Hub Swindon to run community events, workshops and listening rooms over the past year; collecting women’s stories and first-person interviews.
At the end of each performance (except the final performance on Wednesday 30th April), there will be a Q&A where audiences will be asked for their thoughts, responses and feedback.
Synopsis
Three different women, exploring their own identities and challenges within the same historical and evolving social landscape. Female experience, articulating that experience, challenging patriarchal norms and the importance of how women connect and share experience is woven through the heart of this story.
The characters’ experiences vary from gender-based barriers or prejudice to opportunity, (sport, employment) to more emotional topics such as feeling listened to, finding positive female role models and questioning how and why things are organised in the way they are, like the traditional segregation of the sexes or interventions (or lack of) to support female safety.
This play pivots around the importance of female solidarity/unity and how dispersed women connecting in a place can create a sense of reconciliation between Swindon’s (largely patriarchal) railway and industrial history and its multicultural present.
Dates & Times:
- Monday 28th April 12 midday at Wiltshire and Swindon Heritage Centre
- Tuesday 29th April 11.30 at STEAM Museum
- Wednesday 30th April 1.30pm at The Civic Offices, Euclid Street, Swindon
- Wednesday 30th April 7pm at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon
Please email Flis Tattersall with any questions or if you are hoping to attend.
