#39 Sisterhood the Play; A gentle but fearless adventure into the dark heart of patriarchal rule.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: This week's episode is a recording of Sisterhood the play, which deals with themes of sexual abuse, infertility, suicide, and menopause. 

I'm sharing this in memory of Sophia, who created the live soundscape for this production and toured with me around East Anglia on a healing tour to all the places where Matthew Hopkins tortured and executed witches.

Like Handmaid's Tale, but with more hope and gallows humour, Sisterhood is a gentle but fearless adventure into the dark heart of patriarchal rule. Three women, aged 20, 40 and 60 (But not a virgin, mother or hag in sight) stand on a precipice, the patriarchy watching over them – flaming torches aloft – threatening to hang them all. Sisterhood is a devised multimedia tale introducing you to a sisterhood caught between two timelines: the witch trials of the 16thC and modern-day women facing a world in political and environmental upheaval. Sisterhood transports the audience, in this live performance, to a church cell in Wilmington, where three women await their trial in the morning. Soothing and passionate storytelling interweaves the stories of these three women with vestiges from the performer’s own lives, to reveal an immediate and clear association.

GROUNDBREAKING WORK “One of the best play scripts I’ve seen at the Fringe… At its core Sisterhood is a superbly written, intelligent, and essential play, masterfully portrayed by its three actresses, exploring the role of male domination, misinformation, sexual abuse, and age discrimination through the lens of the past but contrasted with moments drawn from the modern day.” - Fringe Review

Sisterhood the Novel by Jolie Booth is available on Amazon.

The music and artwork is by @moxmoxmoxiemox

Nonsense in the Chaos is available on all podcast platforms or you can listen to it here… https://nonsenseinthechaos.buzzsprout.com

I'd love to know what you think! If you want to get in touch with me about anything on the podcast then email nonsenseinthechaos@gmail.com or you can follow me on Instagram and Bluesky @kriyaarts or at the Nonsense in the Chaos Page on Facebook.

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Thank you for all your support -x-

Transcript

0:29

The. Welcome to The Nonsense In the Chaos. I'm your host, Jolie Rose. Tonight's podcast is a special one in reverence to Sophia, who is my friend who passed away. It's the recording of the play that we took on the road together. I created this play in 2017. I want to say I created it with my. Mentor and my protege, who's now very much like my keeper. But, my friend Cara, I have talked about this in the previous podcast, but just as a quick, debrief, I. Did an ayahuasca ceremony that was dedicated to the divine feminine and it was an incredible evening and it was before I'd really heard of the goddess rising and she rising and the divine feminine and all that stuff. It was all new to me at this point and I had an incredible night of being worshiped. That was amazing, and it felt just so powerful. It was such an life changing. It turned out to be moment and in the morning I had this vision that I needed to write a play called Sisterhood with my mentor and my prodigy. So these two women that were very special to me that never met each other, but the wisdom that my mentor had passed on to me. I knew that I'd passed on to my protege and I. Just knew I had to write a play with them. That's all I knew. And I thought it was gonna be kind of vagina monologues vibe. It was like modern. I'd been working a lot in theater and, uh, taking shows up to Edinburgh and, and smashing Edinburgh with different performances. And in my head I thought it was gonna be this really modern show, really fast pace. To my surprise, I make really gentle work. both the plays that I've written, hip and sisterhood are both very gentle, which I find surprising and in fact, Bane's pretty gentle as well. It seems that my creations are gentle. My books are pretty hard hitting, but yeah, my. Although I think my new one that I've just nearly finished is quite gentle. But on the whole, yeah, my work tends to be surprisingly gentle. I think it's surprising'cause I think of myself as being quite, uh, fast-paced and bolshy and loud and bright and brash. But maybe I'm not as much that as I think I am. And. I got funding from the arts council and we hired a cottage and it was just fate that led to the cottage that was rented. I took my mentor and my protege and a designer, a graphic designer, a lighting designer, and. A statistician, all women, and we locked ourselves in this cottage for a long weekend and created this show. And right at the beginning, my mentor said that the play is trying to tell itself and all we have to do is get out of the way. And what came through was that it was Beltane at the time. There were lambs bleeding, there was birds chirping. There were ravens trapped in our fireplace. Oh jack Doors that were trapped in our fireplace when we got there that we had to let out. There was blossom falling from the trees and. We were in Wilmington and we were right next to this old church yard with a giant ancient tree in it, and we. We sat in the church and there was this beautiful stained glass window with a phoenix on it that was spilling fire light in the golden hour over us as we sat in this beautiful old church. And my mentor said, oh, you know that in the old days when you didn't have a lockup, if a village was too small to have a lockup like Wilmington, then the only building that would have, you know, a safe space to lock people into would be a church. So quite often they were used as. Sort of overnight prisons. And I said, so if you're accused of witchcraft, you might have spent your last night in a church. And she said, yeah. And we sat there in silence and, and then I was like, that's the play, isn't it? And. I just worked on a play called Testosterone, which was about a man who was a trans man who was in a male dressing room, trying to work out what kind of man he wanted to be. And what I liked about the play was the limitations, so it being confined in this space, but like flights of fancy took it off to other places, but it was within this contained space and I liked how that worked. And so with this play, I like the idea of us being confined within a church and that the whole play is from there. And there might be things that take us off elsewhere, but. The, the plays based in this one confined space. So the play became, and we improvised it. So my mentor, myself and my protege got into tutor a costume and,'cause we had them with us, we just brought all our stuff with us and so we had Kenmore costumes with us and we went and improvised this play. It was, uh, originally improvised in the laundry room of the cottage, but we also went and did some bits of improvisation up at the church as well, and then captured, literally we voice recorded what what was said and captured it, and then wrote it into this play, which I then turned into a novel and that's available. I'll put that in the show notes. So you can also read this as a novel, which has got a slightly. It's slight twist on it. It's got a modern, three modern women as well that are in parallel living in parallel to the three women locked in the church. They're confined on a train that's broken down. So with this, it's the audio of the play. So it's not the best sound quality. It's a bit echoy and it's from a big room. So it's not got the same quality as as studio sound, but it's got the atmosphere and the soundscape. The music that's playing with it is Sophia. So once I'd written the play, I then. Found actresses to play the parts because my mentor and Prodigy aren't actresses and didn't want to do that. So we, cast for it, found some actresses to play it, and then Sophia did the soundscape for it. And she was sort of dressed as mother goddess. She was the mother goddess. And then we were all in tune, a costume and the plays set. Over the course of from Sunset, the golden hour through nighttime to dawn. there will also be a video of this and which you can see if you go onto Patreon, it'll be available on there. but there is also a video of it on my. YouTube channel, which is the La Luna cover YouTube channel, so you can watch it on there. If you type in sisterhood, the play, it's there as a, a video of the production, but the video of this with me talking now and it being a podcast, is available on the Patreon page. And yeah, so it's a bit of an experiment doing this. I have. Recorded hip, but I recorded it in the studio reading the script out. Whereas with this, I think it's nice to hear the different voices and I wanted to capture Sophia's soundscaping. So this is a dedication to her. forgive me for it not being studio sound quality, but it's play quality, so it's still good enough to share with you hopefully you enjoy it. Come now. Come now. Each woman and girl, take your courage to the flames they call. We may burn at the hands of some men, but from that fight we shall rise again. I shall follow my sisters three and up on the face. Where, who? My husband, my good fellow. They're expecting still to come. He'll come. He got love. They were they not comforting that what they were doing by yonder Tree, does that not think? It seemed as if they were waiting for us. Where are my husband? Where are my father? Where are my jack door? What would be that then? It's a prayer I got smashed with and I did somewhere. What? Be a thought just for the tree asking what That'd be her business. Do they be you mistress? This cans not be smoke. What be that then? Does it curse? And where For beer, upon a piece of paper. And you know how to make one. I read about them in my father's library now trespassing, my father's library to learn to make a curse. What? I found it in a book or some such. My father has booked some curses. Was on a book. Was on some papers. Does that what they be writing in books these days? Time was when they just come knock on my door. When did I get my letters? Here? Let me look when I can't hear the, since I eight summer, my father had a school who'd be a curing my father. Now what Pieing, my father from a book found in his library, was not in a book, was on some papers. I found them. Found them together in a leather cover of. But I think maybe there were my brothers. Oh, well she was a sweet thing. In truth, I do not remember her. Ah, she was, when she cut ties on me there, that worked a squiggly little thing. Couldn't wait to get into the light. Now, that was first, but that was fast. No more than two hours in the bearing. And thy blessed mother beamed when she laid eyes on me as if that were to fresh may mourn. I did not know that. I can't remember. Well, I remember it well. I liked our mother. She was a sweet thing, and she was sent all that way from the lowlands on her own to marry thy father. This be finally made it look good that we'll do upon tomorrow. Wherefore that cursing though, father, it was to force me to marry. For this reason. I lived right the curse to protect myself from him and to protect myself from others. No children are coming for me, for I have no children. That's what I was doing by. I've always wanted a daughter. I'm from a long line of really lovely mothers. My great nan, my Nan, my mom and me were all alive until I was 15 years old, and I desperately wanted to keep this line going. And although I did get pregnant when I was 21, I didn't keep it. It was with some random guy. I just finished university and none of that was what I planned, so I didn't keep her pretty sure it was a girl. Years later, I met my husband and we started trying for children, but after a few years we realized that it wasn't happening. So we started to do IVF to do IVF. You have to inject yourself in the stomach every day for 30 days, and then you build up to doing it twice a day, and then three times a day your stomach goes black and blue with bruises and you feel like a human pink cushion. The first lot of injections simulate the menopause and the next lot flood your body with estrogen. And this makes your ovaries open up like honeycombs. Each honeycomb is a follicle, and that's where the X pop out. Once I have simulated and I opened up 24 follicles and the nurse said to me, don't you go having sex, so you might end up with 24 babies. I really wanted a daughter, but I didn't want 24. oh, I had to have nine ultrasounds, which were really painful because one of my ovaries is often an adventure, and so the nurse had to pump on my stomach in order to find it. I had to have about 30 blood tests and two operations, two lots of two week weights only to find out that it was all for nothing. And then there was a time where I overstimulated, where I basically overdosed on estrogen. I put on loads of weight and went completely mad. The best way to describe myself during that time was a weeping, volatile puffer fish, and my husband just had to wh in a cup. He felt really guilty about it though. I often think back to the daughter that I never had. I wonder what she would've been like. She'd be 19 this December. I wonder whether we would've got on. I'd like to hate. We would. I just need a drink now. That be the first sensible thing that I said since I've got here. Just I think there'll be wine. Bye. There will be wine. That'll be the blood of Christ. I wish greatly to drink of blood of Christ come. That can help look too young, ma them. So don't look, don't get. I can pick locks. Was that learned in a library too? It's not getting into the library. Whatever happens upon the murder, it'll be better than being sold off to some violent master upon the Murray. It actually shot by curse by father. That will put the fear of God into him. What does I think that will do to us upon the may have? There will be a trial a I will try. Will my father be there? Hi. I think all the folks from the Village will be and take you see? Their husband will be there. He better be there. If he's gonna leave me here to be chasing in front of the whole village, he'd bloody better be there. I'm gonna look him right in the eye. When my sisters come, they're gonna make all the women from the village come. We all had to watch Mary Charco. What if, what if we should not be here when they come for tomorrow? I've been thinking upon this, but there is a fellow set outside and they're gonna hear the glass in the station. No, I mean, not here. Not here. Make it quick. Just don't know how to make it quick. I, that's other, other means. No, I think that'd be a fine idea. Let us get drunk first till we're well within our cups. Then we'll upon the matter. Come on. Yes. Now we'll have a drop of wine and listen to the good Lord's words and that will strengthen our spirit. I will have to listen to the good Lord's words whilst we drink the blood of Christ. That's be what we're going to do young lady and I won't have these stand there like that with our hands on my hips looking at me like that. I just not wish to hear the words of Christ. Does not believe in him. Oh, thankfully, not to tell me what I done and does not believe in. They've told us to change our minds and what to believe in. I don't know what weights being up or down. And what now, do I do the right thing by giving Dee a cup first? I know that. Well, I do now come and see. Hi. Sit thy earth here. And in the last of this precious light, we will hear these words out. Taste of the wine better than a fellow mistress. Now I have th letters. I know this because I found I curse in a library. She found her curse in a. Yes. Okay. At this time I was very sorry and reluctant to die. Does this be the Bible? No, it is not the Bible. It is Julian of knowledge. Lucy Na not is a she a mistress. I have never held a book written by a mistress before fly. She was an anchorite. Oh. That one of the women that was bricked into the charge walls may not bricked in. Well, I, she was bricked in, but she retired there from life and gave herself to the Church of Knowledge out of her own choice. And there she spent the rest of her days living in its walls. And there she wrote a book. Hi. Now read Mistress that they'll want any of this mistress. My feet will swing in the morning. Might as well get it down, Lee. How? Go on read. Not because there was anything on earth that I wanted to live for, nor because I feared anything nay. I fear nothing. Nay for I trusted in God I, I Dom. So I thought my good Lord, may my ceasing to live be to thy glory. Then God brought our lady into my mind. Now, when does the priest ever bring forth our lady into our mind? Never is a bastard. Well carry on. Come on. Um, I saw her spiritually and bodily likeness in Meek and simple maiden of edge, insane bodily form as when she conceived. I had seen her, I had seen her down at the, well, I had seen her down by the river. I, but they were speakers to birds and now does not and which of must be the bigger fool, but just for why folks talk about the, they are the one that curing by Bo young mate. I, from a book now Keep going. Um, God also showed me part of her wisdom and truth of her soul. So I understood with what reverend she beheld her God and how reverently she marveled that he chose to be born of her. A simple creature of his own making. For made her marvel was that he who was the maker chose to be born of a creature he had made, which moved her to say very humbly to the angel Gabriel, behold the handmaiden of the Lord. And this night I really understood that she is greater in worthiness and in all grace than all that God made below her. But nothing that is made is above her except the blessed manhood of Christ. Amen. Then what happens? There's this thing that is made that is below our lady, Saint Mary. God showed it to me as small as if it had been a hazelnut, as small as if it had been a hazelnut. I flew one day that flew, of course I did with the birds and I did see this where I did some small, just above over Kingston and back again. For the view, did I fly as myself or as a bird? I flew as me. What? Nothing did. Seabee? No. No folks noticed anything around here. Least of all flying things. Least of all flying women who've gone through the change. The change, hi. The end of my monthly courses. The courses that come each month. The blood that flows between my legs. How would I say know of this? How? How, if I know of this, what has No one had a good sense to tell me of their meaning. The priest said, do not listen to a words that priest tells them. The power know of this. You have them. It What tells the about of to bearing age? What is, what tells the, if they are a child, if a child had taken, then the blood does not issue fault. If it issues fault just thy heart, we can forth bloody tears from between thy legs. Nate is not thy heart that bleeds does the mess of thy womb That issues forth, but there is no egg growing within it to warm. But each moon thy womb makes a new nest. But the priest said was a curse made, did not a curse. It is a blessing for some, for all. Thy womb is a magic chance, a ball of power, whether it is with child or without child. With its monthly courses or without, well, my monthly courses have stopped, but it still have magic. What might it be? That then mistress, it does make me invisible. Invisible. Hi. Since the change folks in the village can see me, not hear me, not smell me, not unless in truth I wish to be seen, which is not off, which is why they could not see me when I flew. But I could see them all right down there and I could see all that tiny little lights from their fires. I did not like it much. It was sort of flying and sort of floating, but I remembered her and the hazelnut. But to me it looked more like a, like a walnut. What the earth does it look like? A walnut? Listen, the path of a good life. Is to keep getting far more from far less. Why I like breeze on the cheek in that moment. Can, can open you up to everything. Half times I while away, half a day, sitting by a patch of grass just looking upon it because, because it's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I have a favorite patch of grass that I sit by up on wind over hill where the air tinkles that grassy patch dances daily with a flight of tiny blue butterflies. Um, we call Holly Blues and little wild bees skipping and hopping lightly over these. These wild carrot flowers that look like toad stools of cow parsley and whites and pinks. And in a place like this, I can breathe and all this, all this is on that hazelnut or walnut. Read that bit again. And this night I really understood that she is greater in worthiness and in all grace than all that God made below her. And all the men he put between them for nothing that is made is above her except. The blessed manhood of crust. There is thing that is made that is below our lady sent. Mary, God showed it to me as small as if it had been a hazelnut. Jesus, our Lord on Earth had a mother. Mary. Do you see? Mary is God's mother on earth. She be his mother. Mary is God's mother. Aye that priest dwells not much on that part of the Bible now does he? Jesus. Oh Lord had a Mother Mary and everything that is below her, which is everything unto the Lord's greatness and the greatness of Mother Mary is as small as if it were a hazelnut or a walnut. And that is what it will all look like to us once they have taken us. Will be their mother or son. They've both forsaken me. I prayed to them both. I prayed and I've prayed and I've prayed and I've prayed. I did that. Pray for thy will for God's way. I prayed, I prayed for a child. It's gonna be a child of God. I see your wife for. I should be getting punished for wanting just what any good wife wants. They are not being punished for what they're yearning. They are being punished by men for what they were gonna do. Casting spells and. I'll swing a spell. It was a prayer. May have was not our good Lord or Mother Mary's will the which mistress if I be one then now one, two. What will they do Joseph, on tomorrow? Are they gonna beat us and talk to us and focus for devastating? Stop thinking on it. Death thou think it will be any better. If that keeps going over and over it, that will not die. One death thou will die. 50. Think on the hazelnut. Think of pulling out of this world. Think of what is on that hazelnut. Everything is on that hazelnut. For this, I'm gonna make more wine. Shall I see the bird again on the other side? Of course I will now shall be rid of us, gonna go to hell because those bloody men and that priest that will all go to hell. So what is TH's story then? What all that doing with a curse in my bodies from my father's library? Well, my stepmother left me with many sisters and my father wants me bred and married. Who would he have me married? Monte You Creek? Most recently? Nay. There's only so many times you'll let say nay. Now we not getting any younger. Not wish be on that V. Well, my father has no sons. What other purpose were my sisters and I filled and that fellow's temper and his breath? I would not let him lay a finger upon me. He touched me once it was, but once and chief, I think it would be better to be hung and touched by him or there. That'd be something to think on. That'll cheer the up When that little feet to begin to dance mon you cre in this big, fat, leery face. That's what that should shout. The G, I'd rather be home and touch by the, oh, rather, the robes kiss. They can't take that away from me. They can choke my little throat out, but they can't stop what comes out of it. I shall say My hail Mary's right at the priest. What can they do then? They think they'd be hanging me for my cunning. Little do they know they've got cat on their hands. They may happen. They'll cut me down and burn me when they find out. Look, look here. This, this has been on my person for the last. 20 summers. They never think of looking here. See that tomorrow should take hide the May. I could cover it with a prayer for the U tree and then they could hang me twice and burn. I take my curse too and then be hung three times. I'll be hung three times for a curse. Found in a Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with me. Blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is a fruit of thy womb. Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God. Pray for us sinners now and the hour of our death. Our amen. Ha. Full grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed our thou amongst for men, and blessed is the fruit of thy wound. Jesus. Holy sun is done. Want to about candy yet? No, not yet. Better yourself. Let's enjoy the last light on the sky and the first star. What if my sister is to marry him instead now? Here. This be the perfect charm for Montague Creek. Does that know what this is? What is it? It is what Othello keeps in his co piece. Tisa Barb cot piece. Nay Tisa foxes. Now, in order for sister not to settle with gold montague, there's some honey we can do with this because she take it with them to the gallows. And shout your own con is gonna, how will I get to the gallows with me? Well, now that they just mention it though, have just brought to mind there is one. We just. Mon Creek. He lives on the street. He's all his breath. There's a furnace. His feet, no one would like him if it went for his, that's what it was tomorrow. Oh. See that song? And then I will cast them all and I'll say, my hail Mary is I does not know the Hail Mary. What? No. She'd be too, Yu come. It starts Hail Mary, full of grace. Hail Mary. Full of grace. The Lord is with me. The Lord is with the Blessed are thou amongst women. Thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy wo, no offense, un taken and blessed is the fruit of thy wo. No offense, thou can leave that plate out. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. And blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God. Now this one interesting. Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Holy Mary, mother of God, holy Mary, mother of God. Pray for our sinners now and at the hour of our death. Pray for us sinners. Pray for our sinners. Pray for our sins. Pray for our sins. All of them. All of them. That one and that one, that one. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for our sinners now and at the hour of our death. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for our sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Now, does that not make you feel a bit better and truth? It does. It may have to be the wine. When they made thy curse in the library, what did they hope would do? I hope it would help me escape. If you enjoy this podcast, then please consider supporting me on Patreon. This is patreon.com/joly Rose. I am dreaming of the day that this is my full-time job and I hope that this is something that I am able to work towards the. Difficulties of living on an island where there isn't a huge number of people to be the audience and to share experiences and events with. It means that I can once a year put on a festival and possibly I could once a year put on a show, but it's not the same as when I was living in Brighton or living in the UK where I could just put things on and do things constantly and get funding from the Arts Council and just live the life of an artist, which I've managed to do for the last 20 years and I'm very proud of. But now I've moved here and it was really important to me. To make this shift, like I moved to be more in nature and more in the land. and I shifted into hopefully writing, but being more in nature and being in this amazing space where I don't need to be able to drive'cause there are no cars. The island is only one mile wide and three miles long. And for me to be able to connect with audiences and connect with people online rather than physically, I was on the road all the time and moving around all the time and going to meetings constantly and just my carbon footprint and. Hecticness was off the charts and I didn't want to go back to that life as well. Like it felt like we learned something from the lockdown, which was to slow down and to live differently and I've then found myself in this completely different reality doing that, and I want to. Stick with it. I want to keep, keep to still be an artist, but in this space, which is a completely isolated island, miles away from everybody else, but with the power of the internet. And This is work that I'm hoping nourishes you and gives you some sort of spiritual solace and strength and nourishment. And if you feel like it is doing that, then. If you are up for helping me to literally eat and be able to pay my rent and, buy new equipment, I'm not happy with the equipment I've got. I'd be amazing to be able to pay an editor one day'cause it takes me so long to do. I'm doing all of the, I'm doing everything on this and I'm learning as I go along. So if you are able to help me the first tier of the Patreon is just three pound a month, which is, the same as you buying me a coffee to say thank you. That would be amazing if you feel like you would. Consider doing that. And then if you do the second tier, which is nine pound a month, then for that you also get to see the videos of the podcast and any other free bits of, stuff that I get to share and discounts on courses and things like that. And mainly a huge amount of appreciation for me and I do appreciate so much the people who are already helping me. Thank you to my Patreons. I can't say how much it means to me that you are supporting me. Thank you. And just to let you know about some of the things that I do that you can. Come and take part in is the moon ceremonies that I do every fortnight. If you want to join these, they're free and they're over zoom and all you have to do is follow on Facebook or Instagram, which are both at queer arts, K-R-I-Y-A-A-R-T-S. If you follow me, then you'll see the links. I put them up. Every fortnight and you just come along and they're really nourishing, beautiful spaces And then towards the end of May is the beginning of the witch fall. You course. And I. Urge you to do this course. If you can see or sense the power of working with archetype, then do get involved, do come and join for this deep dive and this deep journey. I'm really looking forward to giving myself over to this cycle. I do it every year and every year I learn something new and I'm. I'm gonna rewrite a myth this time. I'm gonna rewrite the story of Venus where she bins off Mars and gets together with Mercury. That's what I'm gonna be doing this time, so I'm gonna be writing a myth, which feels like big work. So come join me if you're up for doing some God-like level archetypal work, really messing with the matrix and. Creating reality then uh, come and get involved. that's it for now. I will let you know as other things come up. But yeah. Exciting. back to the show, I was never forced to marry. I still had every reason to me to escape. Growing up was a crash course in crisis management. I am 20 now and tried to face becoming an adult. Adult, more so a girl. Um, my mother had my brother, a boy with beautiful golden ring that's dad bounced as he ran. Um, my dad bus off when I was little because he's a boy so he can do whatever he likes. Um, me and my brother, we fought quite a lot when I was younger'cause he, he just sat around playing video games while I sat and cleared our house because boys just don't understand consequences until they're much older than us. Darling, when I was 15 and feeding my dad egg buddies on the sofa because the alcohol had ruined him, it was me, not my brother who looked after him. And it was me who said, I'm drinking vodka with my mom on a school night because it was snowing and my dad was falling asleep under a hedge while my brother, well, he started setting fire to things because boys will be boys. They need an outer. When I was 18, um, my mom finally got up the courage to follow the divorce. It was me who fronted the money for my job. I left school for at 16. While my brother took Ketamine and his blood because well, boys aren't very good at emotional traumas and boys need fathers. I wonder when we're gonna realize that this bullshit is as damaging to them as it is to us. It's affecting us. All it. What does that think that I should do upon tomorrow? Laugh. Curse. Well then I shall curse my husband, but that have not come for me. For me. Have they held him back? No. My husband, he's as strong as an ox. If he'd wished to come for me, he'd be here by now. No, he's gonna watch me swing upon the morrow for not giving him an air. I've done everything for that fellow. I've cooked for him, I've cleaned for him. I've tended to him. I've done everything. A good wife should, well, I'd be done with thee and I'd be done with thee. Then be strong words. They'd be strong words, but I see no work here that shows his love for me. If this is fatherly love for his flock, then I do renounce him as Sarah's renounced my father. I'm gonna be a child of the moon and the stars and the rain and see what they'll do with me for I like my chances better. Words of God. No more of that bastard, priest and truth. Good mistress is whatever will get thee through the night. I could not renounce you. Oh Lord, I, this is all I may hope for. I Ivy cursed. It started once when I was with the priest. My father, he would beat it outta me, but he could not. I should have kept my eyes fixed upon across, but my eyes, they hurt. So from staring at me, I should have be begged Christ, but I could not. I was too furious. And in my period, I closed my eyes and still I saw Christ and the priest were, keep speaking mistress. I might as well tell it before the Morrow. Well come now, girl. Tell us what happened today. You gotta fear pause within my mouth moving. I felt I might throw up from guilt and shame and dirt in all them rotten festering feelings and memories and truth was a sensation as if my head did split open. I, the priest spilled in my mouth. I felt a gross substance leak from my cracked skull down my face, into my eyes and nose and mouth. And Jesus worked with me, waited in silence, and then the air shook about me. I span in stillness and saw what Christ was looking down upon the perfect image of a priest and a girl frozen, such as the kind of baptism. The priest pulled from my mouth. I returned to my body. He left. I stayed just waiting and kneeling, dripping, and then the red hot waves buried into my being. I saw red and white and glowing and burning, and then it still sounded, fury took over my body. I woke collapsed face first on the stove floor. I rose. I cleansed myself. I returned to my father's house. It was not the first time nor the last time that the priest would call upon me, but, but towards then those strange ways of. If Devil Fury did begin to take over my being, at times well, must I not see there's something within me that's rotten? Who would God may I hope for? We are not your father or the priest or any other man who tells that they wrong in the head for what they have done to them. Mr has done nothing wrong. It's the priest. Now look here. Young mistress. If I could buy their way outta here, what would they plan be? Well, I know not, well think on it. Let's say I could hand the A diamond or two enough. To get thyself out of here that gave one to the guard to get out of here. Ret through the village. Up over the hill, then what would that do? There's not much I could do. Damage can tell me into a man or fox. No, but they could buy the garment tattoo thinking this will only make it harder up on the morrow. Suppose they're just not hang up on the Morrow. Suppose they're all given some money. Will I please try and construct a dream for thyself? Girl, what would that do? But imagine that would not been born and maid and had all these troubles before then. What was that again? And be a fell. Suppose I am of the dark eyes for all my love of a virgin. Suppose I could give me a diamond or two enough to buy thyself out of here. What would I do? I may not work. Go what? Think on it. But I run away when I was young with less summers than I have now. And I knew not where I was going or what I was going to do, so I had to make a plan. And that takes each step at a time and now keeps going until they are when I'm needed to be. So think on it. What are they going to do? But is anyone different? But imagine if thou had, uh, britches, huge copies because of horses, and they stuck my horse a little deeper. They went over hill and kept on going, and kept on going and kept on going until thou came to a place where all did think that thou were to third. What would still do then? Would thou play a trade? Oh, I would not wish to be like my father. That's what that would not do. Tell us not what that would not do. Tell us what they would do. I join a shit. Ah, no cross to high sea. Well, five or six days. That could be in Portsmouth there that could bypass passage. I've heard of many women who've crossed the high seas. They bind their breasts and artificially fellows. Well, I thought, I wish that I thought of such things yesterday from a big eye problem. I spent too much time thinking on what my heart does not desire. Instead of thinking on what my heart does desire, now they're going to buy thy way out of here. I'll buy a big hat. They'll buy big hat and I shall, oh, they'll buy a big account, some gamble, and I'll buy a big purchase with a huge copies as as big as an xis. And I'll run away to high seat. Now. Now, now we need a plan. Does sound, no, Portsmouth Na be an old woman there. Her name is. Mother Margaret, she is called now. Comes in on the old Portsmouth Road. There is an ash and an oak turn left at the ash. Travel a little further down the road and now we'll see an inn. It does not look like an inn. It looks like a house. Bang, three times meow like a cat. She will let the inn, um, f for the ash. Uh, look for the inn bang. The three times meow like a cat. Meow. Ah, well she sounds like a right character to go play. I'll have the, no, she's a good friend of mine and I won't have you speak ill of her. Now when they reach it there, tell her I have sent these a parting gift. Tell her thy plan without ought to lodge with her, that she will put the upstairs. Just tell her not to throw the in with the rest of the girls and she will find the, and I will have money for this. The money speaks especially to Mother Margaret. She will find the outfit of, of a sailor, but they ought not to be taking a lowly job. That must be taking a job as a, a sexton or a quarter master or a quarter master's assistant. I've never been to sea. They were a quartermaster's assistant. She does not know what a quartermaster is. It just means they must do the bills, keep the account. Thou have th letters. But because thou have th letters, thou must not be taking a lowly job where they are hauling ropes or some sort and do not go with any fellow who gives v the eye. If, if he's giving V the eye, he can think that they are a fellow. That would be the way he likes them. Or Jeff put his card in my mouth and he will not know the difference. But do not let'em know that they are made to both up to have a mistress on a ship. They will cast the office. Now they want to stay with Mother till she finds the outfit they needed and she will introduce the to all the right people, all the quartermaster. So they be her regular customers, not three times I knock, three times meow like a cat. Tell her I something. Is that understood? I now where that should be going? West Indies, east Indies. Do I choose? Where do I wish to go? Where can they not construct a dream for thyself? Girl, I know. Not in all my summers, none have ever let me think on the thoughts such as these before that has never thought on nothing except for reading books and making curses for thy father. Now, where are they going to go? Sugar. Some place. Hot. Why? Where would that be? Spain, Portugal cannot trust the Spanish. Go to Portugal. It's much better. Africa. Africa. I have never thought on Africa. There are many things that have never thought a pong. Now when they're out in Africa, what are they going to do? I know not. What are my choices? Well, think that was a rich master. In Africa, I shall need a trade. I'm very true. So pick one fish. Can that fish? I did not wish to fish. That's a stinking job. I could be a merchant. Ah, that could trade silk. That has no letters. Look, if I can make a purse from a book in a library, I can work as a merchant, then I can sell silks and I can g and that could take away, well, I think most mistresses would be only two peas to discover their master was in truth and made. That just needs to keep by beast. And then you can use the handle there. Go have a plan, mistress Beast. Where that go when? When they turned away? Everywhere and nowhere. Back then I was visible. Of course, some would say Too visible. Too visible. I, back then there were some that said I was quite a beauty. How fancy not to look at me like that. Young mistresses did not ever have any children. Nay bearing children is a con Well, it is a great big con to chainless, mistresses to the bed and parlor. But they know all too well if we were out and about in the world, that we'd be sticking our noses into their business at no time and, and showing them how it all needs doing. Well, they can't be having that, but they have to keep us busy. I never dreamt of getting married, but I dreamt of having children, a huge brood, maybe eight or nine. It never happened, and when I turned 40, I had no husband, no children, no house, no car. I had some good qualifications, some very fine skills, and some great stories to tell, but people don't care so much about all of that now, for various reasons. I was at the birth of one of my friend's children, so every year I'm invited to that child's birthday party. And on her fifth birthday party, I arrived at the house and there was a woman at the gate with a baby in a basket and a toddler, and they were struggling to get through the gate, so I went to help them. She looked at me and she said, what are you doing here? You don't have any children? Which made me feel on another occasion, a family party. And my nephew looked around the room and he couldn't quite place me within the family. And then he said, oh, I get it. You are the spare mommy. Which made me laugh, but it also made me feel that I didn't have a place unless I could call myself wife or mother. No one owned me, but I didn't belong to anyone. And I, I started to feel that I was of no use, that I was no one. And I knew what was coming because I knew about the menopause and it felt like the end of something. But when it happened and I became invisible, well, they also became free. But it wasn't all good, of course, but it wasn't the end of the world either. And I could suddenly see clearly that all those trappings people said I needed that. I felt I needed to be someone to be a mistress. A woman of importance. Well, they were all just stories. They were just spinning us yarns. They were just spinning us bleeding. And now I know All I need to do is just turn up to the day and here I am. Good day to you, Mrs. Good day. And that be enough. I be enough. Amen. Full of grace. The Lord is with me. Blessed art bow among swimming and blessed Holy Mary. Mother God, pray for us sinners now and the of our death. He went, he, holy God. Spring, Jesus, spring this dress. Finish it. Mistress for grace. Mother of God, pray for us now. And the ha Mary, full of grace, the Lord is come. Blessed thou is a fruit. Come now. Take your courage as the flame say, we may at the hands of some men, but from the bow, we shall rise again. I shall follow my sister and ing upon the face of it. Our body, they may burn and beat, but this Phoenix day shall never defeat. Come now. Come now. Each woman and courage, we may burn at the hands of some men, but from that shall rise. And again, I shall call my sister street and up on the face of it, our bodies, they may burn beat, but this be shall never defeat. Shall never defeat so that's the play of sisterhood. What you might not have picked up at the end was, the reason I was coughing and splattering was because Marjorie told me to finish the wine and she'd added a poison to it, which she. Lets me know is there, so I'm, I'm aware of what I'm drinking and I make the choice to do it. we allude to it at the beginning of the play where I ask if she has the means and she doesn't say anything. And, so what she's done is she's given the diamonds to. The young girl and so she's, we don't see how or whether it works, but there's the possibility of her being able to escape or being able to bribe the prison guards or something, use her sexuality and sensuality to maybe seduce them and and whatever. But basically she's got some diamonds. There's the possibility of her being able to escape and she is slightly. Pasha than, than me and Marjorie, the old woman. And so, yeah, she has more of a chance and we've talked through the plan with her, which was sort of hypothetical, but turns out that there is the opportunity if she can make it work. And so she has that and I, um, handed. The glass with poison in so that I can make it quick and not have to go through being tortured and hung. And so I choose to drink the wine and so that's why I'm coughing and spluttering at the end. And that's why they're singing and praying kind of loudly as I cough and splutter. And then the door knocks, and then that's the end of the play in the book. there's more, it goes on to, talk about. there's an historical record of an old woman called Marjorie being hung in Wilmington for witchcraft. And it talks about like the state she's in when they hang her. And it's not a very nice state, but there's no mention of anyone else. And so it suggests that the girl did get away. and there's no mention of of me. So yeah, that's the play. I mean, it is pretty heavy stuff. It's not the most cheery, but it's also got a bit of galley's humor. I mean, there's a lot to it and it is wonderful to hear Sophia's music over the top of it. And yeah, I wanted to share it with you. It felt like this was the right time to do it. I promise things will be a bit more upbeat after this. We've got an interview with Naomi Smith who's a full coming up, and then I've got some other brilliant guests lined up that I'm really excited to share. So yeah, we've gone there with this one. it was. Something that I had intended to do already, but it's been extra inspired by Sophia's passing to share the creative project that we worked on together. And we did take this tour all over East Anglia and we went to all the places where Matthew Hopkins, the witch finder, general, tortured, and executed. Women and men, um, in the name of witchcraft. He was a serial killer. He had no legal right to be doing what he was doing, and, uh, made a thousand pounds back in the tutor times, which was a huge amount of money from one, uh, local council that he turned up to and said, got any witches? I'll go rid of them for you. And. If he pay me and some people were paying him, he made loads of money and yeah, had no right to do it and killed. 60% of the witches killed in the UK were by him. He was 27 when he died. He was, discredited, which wasn't as bad as being tortured and executed, but in the T times was. Like your reputation was everything. And we performed this play that you just heard the recording of in Barry and Edmonds at the, uh, I can't remember what the building was, but it's the museum and the museum's in the courtyard of the old town. It might have been the market building or the corn exchange or something like that, but the Mus, the Barry s museums. In this building that would've been there at the time of him being there possibly would've been one of the spaces that he used to torture the people that he was torturing.'cause he then lined up a hundred people to be hung as witches. And that's when the. Government that there was, which was very tenuous because it was during the Civil War. They got wind of it and was like, hang on a minute. A hundred witches, this sounds implausible. And so they sent some people down and came and discredited him. I think one or two people were still hung for witchcraft, but not a hundred. And the reason why he was able to get away with what he was doing was because there was the Civil War and Oliver Cromwell was in the throes of taking over the country and. Chopping off the head of Charles, the first, and so the world, the, the UK was in disarray and a lot of the men of the families or men of the town who might have stood up for, or, questioned what was going on would, were elsewhere, were fighting battles. And uh, Puritan had recently gone through East Anglia kicking up a further about fear and enemies and the devil is amongst us and all this stuff. And then. Hopkins came wandering through afterwards going, so anyone here in league with the devil? And everyone's like, ah, everyone's in league with the devil. They're in league with them just pointing the finger everywhere. And then he made loads of money taking them out. And when someone was accused of witchcraft, you lost your property. So if someone did have a a, an heir, then they wouldn't inherit. The house it went to, the government it went to, well, the local council. And so people literally, they were like, oh, well. And that's why it was easy to take out old women because they didn't have anyone to defend them. And then the council got their property, so it was all very calculated. Like whole families would be taking out problem neighbors, anyone who was a troublesome family, they just accuse the whole family of being witches and take their land. And then, yes, vulnerable single. People, old women, especially anyone who couldn't stand up for themselves was um, taken out. And we went and performed in all the places where Matthew Hawkins did this in East Lia. Not at every single one of them, but uh, we did a key, key places tour. And in each place we then did a healing ceremony. So when this play finishes, we then did a healing ceremony where we put down stones that we, in one stone, uh, filled with. Acknowledgement of peoples that we felt were being picked on or tortured or, you know, mistreated in the world today. And then a stone for hope, like our prayers and our hopes. And we put them in the middle of the circle and then Sophia went round and blessed them and cleansed them with her singing bowls. And we cleanse the space and. It just made such a difference. Like when we were doing it, the beginning performances were like thunder and lightning, and there was a point where I said, we're just forgiving and forgetting Matthew Hopkins just to let it go. You know, let him go. But when I said we're forgiving and forgetting Matthew Hopkins, it was a huge crack of thunder. And then we performed the play at the Red Lion in Man Tree. Which was the pub that he pulled his neighbor out by the hare and accused her of being a witch. And that began the whole witch craze. And her name was Elizabeth Clark, And the only other play that I've ever written hip was about. Elizabeth Ann Clark, both plays have been about Elizabeth Clark inadvertently, and I do feel like I have some, I. Sort of past life connection with all this. Uh, the, it turned out when we were booking the tour of Matthew Hopkins, that Braintree, where I'm from, was literally slap bang in the middle of his web. And when we were looking for somewhere to perform the nearest place to Braintree, where I'm from, was Cosal. And when we went there, my mom was like, oh, we used to live there and pointed to a cottage on the ducking bridge in Coho. And I said, I've never lived in Coho. And she, oh, it was when I was pregnant with you. And I also have got a strong connection to Aborigine culture. I think I might have a past life as an aborigine as well. And in that culture, the first time the baby kicks in the mother's womb, they believe the song lines jumped up through the mother and kickstarted the baby into life. And so I would've been on the ducking bridge when I was kickstarted into life by that song line. So there's lots of. Weird connections with all of this. I've nearly drowned six times in this life. I've spent my, I've spent 36 years living as a Tudor, working at a Tud in Atman where I did nearly drown and I saw someone in Tudor costume jump in to save me, um, who turned out not to be there. And then that set me off on the shamanic journey, and that's what got me into fooling and all the spiritual stuff that I'm into. So yeah, lots of connections and interweavings, but the reason why I wanted to share this with you today was because of. The Sophia connection and her beautiful soundscape. So this is in honor of you, Sophia, and thank you for all of the beautiful, creative things that we did together. They were so much fun. You're a wonderful spirit and, uh, yeah, you still live on, in everything, in my memories in the moonlight and the sunlight, and in the swallows, and the peacocks and the rainbows, and in this beautiful. Play that we created together. So if you want to watch the full video, it's on YouTube, on La Luna Coven. If you type in Sisterhood La Luna Coven. And you can also read the novel, I turned the play into a novel and that's on Amazon. So thank you ever so much. I hope you enjoyed. That's as much as one can and I shall. See you next week. See the anon.