Synopsis
What you haven't realised is that I sew to aid my thought processes.
Look – needle – stab – stitch – thought.
Needle – stab – stitch – thought.
So next time you see a woman demurely sewing a sampler, be very, very wary.
God knows what she may be planning.
Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) was a social theorist who is often credited as being the first female sociologist.
In Harriet Martineau Dreams of Dancing, Shelagh Stephenson depicts the great writer in a period of convalescence, living as an invalid by the sea in Tynemouth.
Shut off from her usual society, Harriet is visited by women of the locale; Impie, a recent widow who is using her new-found marital freedom to paint murals on the ceilings of her family home; Beulah, the daughter of a woman who'd been sold into slavery and escaped; and Jane, the housemaid, whose unfeted and unexpected gifts lift her out of domestic servitude and could help Harriet out of illness.
Harriet Martineau is a play about female self-reliance in a time of patriarchal dominance.
Written by Shelagh Stephenson, it premiered at Live Theatre, Newcastle, in winter 2016.
Performance
Cast
A small cast size of 6 total roles, 4 female and 2 male roles.
