The Welkin

by Lucy Kirkwood

Rural Suffolk, 1759. As the country waits for Halley's Comet, Sally Poppy is sentenced to hang for a heinous murder. When she claims to be pregnant, a jury of twelve matrons are taken from their housework to decide whether she's telling the truth, or simply trying to escape the noose. With only midwife Lizzy Luke prepared to defend the girl, and a mob baying for blood outside, the matrons wrestle with their new authority, and the devil in their midst. Lucy Kirkwood's play The Welkin premiered at the National Theatre, London, in 2020, directed by James Macdonald and featuring Maxine Peake and Ria Zmitrowicz.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Historical Fiction, 21st Century

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 23, 2020

About the author

British playwright and screenwriter.

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kirkwood is probably my favorite contemporary living playwright, and she never disappoints. Although I wouldn't call this one of her top tier plays, it is still an intriguing and viable piece of dramaturgy. At almost three hours of run time though, it could have used some judicious editing, and several of the revelations in the second act are a bit melodramatic, although from reading reviews, they evidently 'play'.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Nobody blames God when there is a woman can be blamed instead."

"MARY DARLING NO ONE CARES A FARTHING FOR YOUR FUCKING LEEKS."

"Please stop pretending you have one cannikin of respect for my authority, Mrs Luke."

[Sansa snark · Rating 5 out of 5]

For school

Female rage <3

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously exactly my thing. Five stars for every ounce of theatricality written into this play.

[Hosein.Abdollahi · Rating 3 out of 5]

به نام خدا
نمایشنامه welkin اثری از لوسی کرک‌وود که در فارسی ملکوت یا به سوی ملکوت ترجمه شده. نمایشنامه اقتباسی زنانه و فمنیستی از اثر گران‌سنگ سیدنی لومیت یعنی دوازده مرد خشمگین هست. داستان از این قراره که زنی به نام سالی پاپی متهم به قتلی فجیع شده و در بزنگاه اعدام شدن، ادعای بارداری کرده. حالا دادگاه برای مشخص شدن باردار بودن یا نبودن سالی هیيت منصفه‌ای دوازده نفره از زنانی که تجربه بارداری داشتتن تشکیل داده که بیان و تشخیص بدن که سالی باردار هست یا خیر! نمایشنامه در قرن هجدهم انگلستان روایت میشه و سرشار از مسایل و مضامین زنانه مثل بارداری، عدم اقتدار و وجاهت اجتماعی، عادت ماهانه و موارد این چنینیه.
نمایشنامه دو پردس؛ حقیقتا در اواخر یا حتی اواسط پرده اول ریتم کند بود و دیالوگ ها فرسایشی که حوصله من یا هر خواننده دیگری میتونست سر بره. اما در پرده دوم شگفت‌زده شدم! به معنای واقعی کلمه شگفت‌زده شدم. کرک‌وود در پرده دوم برای مخاطب سورپرایز های ویژه‌ای داره.
دو صحنه هست که در راستای عدم اسپویل کردن خیلی نمیتونم بازشون کنم، اما بسیار دوستشون داشتم. یک زمانی که کلاغ داخل شومینه میفته و حال هوای زنان و مخصوصا الیزابت در اون موقعیت، دو هم صحنه آخر که الیزابت، سالی و مری بر قله اراده‌ورزی می‌ایستن!
دو نکته منفی هم وجود داشت که واقعا اذیت‌کننده بود، یکی ترجمه و ویراستاری ضعیف که پیشنهاد میکنم اگر زبانتون خوب هست حتما نسخه انگلیسی نمایشنامه رو مطالعه بکنید، دو هم دیالوگ سارا هولیس که هرگز نفهمیدم چرا و به چه علت کرک‌وود انقدر اون رو فانتزی نوشته بود!!
با آرزوی موفقیت برای زهرای عزیز، امیدوارم که اردیبهشت ماه یک اجرای خوب ازش تو بندرعباس ببینیم.

[Flora · Rating 5 out of 5]

slay

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bleak but witty

[Jude Burrows · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly compelling and novel premise which is then tactfully executed with real composure by Kirkwood. Each character feels tangible and dynamic enough to have earned their place in the narrative and the central figures are wonderfully blurred morally which creates fascinating dynamics and interactions. Despite approaching a vast number of complex subjects Kirkwood gives each their due, answering questions that can be answered and smiling ruefully at the ones that cannot. I re-read large amounts of this during a rehearsal process and was continuously impressed at the depth of consideration which would come to me anew each time. I do not always enjoy historical subject matter but this was very impressive. Possessed a sense of character and heart that many playwrights would do well to replicate.

[Addy Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️. I am analyzing this for my script analysis class and I’m sooo excited to learn more about this. I love plays about women’s experiences and while I had some issues with the pacing I thought it was really awesome and refreshing.

[Ronja (queer-is-the-universe) · Rating 4 out of 5]

You don't wanna hurt me
But see how deep the bullet lies
Unaware I'm tearing you asunder
Oh, there is thunder in our hearts

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

god that was good

[Madison Merkel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crucible mixed with 12 Angry Men but female centric, funny, and so smartly written

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Kept me up at night to finish. Sharp, smart writing, so vivid and propulsive. Would love to see it performed.

[Jonathan Daley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really very powerful. I wish I had seen it live (I had tickets to) as I believe that it may have been even more impressive when seen in the flesh as opposed to read! Real echoes of the Crucible, and I loved the end (without spoiling it) - which I think really worked! It feels like it would be a very provocative theatrical moment.

[Marie Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't had time to really mull it over yet, but on first read-through I really enjoyed this play. Which is unusual for me with scripts. I usually find it difficult to feel a sense of place . I guess seeing as everyone in this play is in one room reiniscient of "12 Angry Men", it is easy for me to imagine without the scene being set.

A young woman, who may or may not be pregant is due to be hanged. Men control the whole legal process and the women are confined to the room and prohibited from food, drink, warmth or light until they make their unanimous decision. Just one man is allowed to be present but he is not allowed to speak, only to ask for their verdict.

There feels a lot of anger in the play toward men, to wealth, inequality and injustice and yet the play is funnier than I expected it to be and I did lol at a few points. There are definite comparisons that can be drawn to today with the conversations that the women have and their experiences of childbirth, menstruation and menopause. The play is set in 1759 and the women are very much a product of their time, being heavily affected and abused by the male dominance in society, religion being widely accepted as being the norm and the women being very much responsible for all of the childrearing and looking after the home.

I found the window through which the crowds stand outside baying for blood a little like our social media today or our reality television. The crowds don't care whether the young woman is guilty or innocent, they don't care about evidence or whether she is pregnant or not or what she may or may not have been through. All they want is to throw things at her and see a good hanging before they go home. All the women can do is close the window and shut them out whilst they struggle to make their decision.

[Harry McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

tempted to give this five stars because it's great but i'm gonna wait for the reread.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

incredibly bleak. social commentary but done in a deft way, clear without being didactic.

if i were pitching this to someone i’d say “twelve angry men with working class women in 1750s suffolk.”

some really great imagery (last image of act 1 and last image of the play are striking)

i like the image of the comet and the choice to end the play with the comet returning in 2061 (and the women are still doing housework, momentarily distracted by the comet before returning to their chores)

this should get staged more, really great roles for women, particularly older women

loved the male bailiff not being allowed to speak, well-done reversal (this is the women’s “dominion” for once)

explores:
- maternal care shifting from midwifes to male doctors
- the flawed justice system (“when so-and-so was punished for stealing a rabbit, was that justice?”)
- the pain of birth, the pain of losing a child
- what makes a person evil? born evil / made evil by society

when people talk about feminist period pieces, this is a good example, not [redacted]! a historical drama that uses the issues of its time period to speak to contemporary issues without relying on modern slang or just painting contemporary issues on top of a historical-ish background.

same for the male doctor, he felt accurate to the period (using incorrect terms/ideas about women’s bodies to justify female subjugation) but not in a strawman way. patronizing to midwife elizabeth lucas but in a real way, not a cartoonish way

only critique was that them singing “running up that hill” took me out of it, i dont think it needed to be there.

[Maria Thorpe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite some good one-liners in a vague feminist commentary, the play as a whole lacks any sense of sustained intrigue. A woman is sentenced to death and a jury of women must decide if that death is delayed or not. Instead of discussing the topic at hand or even the case of a trial itself, these women are reduced to misogynistic stereotypes, such as woman who cannot have children, woman who wants revenge, woman who gave up her child, etc. Some interesting conversations arose during the time this jury were in session, but all avenues were left to die before you can even understand what’s meant to be happening.
I hoped more for a modern play with a swathe of female characters, but it is still plagued with the institutional misogyny we cannot seem to escape.

[Marie-Theres · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this play!
It's sad, tragic but also funny and touching. Would love to see it live on stage. 🎭

"Nobody blames God when there is a woman can be blamed instead." page 19

"When a woman is being buried alive she will reach for even the grubbiest tool to dig herself out again." page 21

"Oh FUCK ME here we go. " "What did she steal?" "She had off us six nutmegs." "My God the nutmegs, I knew we would hear about the nutmegs sooner or later." "I wasn't aware there was a criminal history." page 56

"Do anyone else hear... that someone else in this room... is also one nutmeg short?" 😅 page 57

[Mark Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly original, Kirkwood's historical drama has a powerful story and makes for theater at its best. It is gritty, earthy, foul, brutish, filthy, violent, sweaty, and primitive--in other words, it makes a great contemporary story.

If a stage production company has the courage to produce this play, I am going to see it. It has women acting brutal to each other, men acting brutal to women, and a raging mob just outside (offstage). The script has incredible immediacy to it; it moves at a great pace and never sags.

It is an odd combination of The Crucible, Twelve Angry Men, with Cormac McCarthy-esque violence. Of course, it is also completely original and very much its own play.

[Alice G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Sally is convicted for murdering little Alice Wax, a group of women is asked to decide whether she will be spared the hanging because she is pregnant. But Sally does nothing to prove her innocence or to appear remorseful - she is fierce, evil, stubborn and will not bow to anyone. As the women, each with their own interests at heart, struggle to reach a verdict, their vision of womanhood and the world collide to create a tableau of pains, joys, knowledge, quirks, good and bad. It is a tale of womanhood at its most extreme - where there is no fear to show the ugliest parts of us.

[Aaron Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very good, and I loved lots of it. It feels to me like it overstays its welcome at almost every point, however. I was nearly always just a bit ahead of it, and that's because it does everything it does for just slightly too long. Good stuff, though.

Other readers' references to The Crucible make no actual sense to me whatsoever. I don't get the comparisons at all. The hysterics in this play are just outside of its borders, pounding on the walls and trying to crush the play's characters.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

女性作家圆桌会之三·Lucy Kirkwood
看到最后宣告崩溃。Sally因一场自己设想之外的谋杀被送上审判席，没有动机就成为同谋因此也失去为自己辩解的能力。可惜法庭也无需她再有更多言语，通过丈夫的“证词”便可做出有罪裁决。十二名女性包含一名助产士手上紧握的权利仅仅是依照自己的生活经验判断当前的罪人是否有孕，却也早早拥有立场——Sally因丈夫的指控被指认为恶魔因此说再多都显得徒劳，即使挤出了乳水也被视为是魔鬼的把戏，有再多的证据也无能为力。到了最后竟依旧依靠男性权威来实现最终审判，在一名医生面前再次让渡自己的权利，又或许她们从未拥有过，十二怒汉里他们聊工作聊证据，这里的女性只是聊生活与生育。最后的结局更是具有毁灭性的力量，窗外的暴民叫嚣著要看到自己想看的结局，法律的审判不比钱与恩惠来得更有权力，一张虚无缥缈的诉状比不上一个真实站在面前的可以诉诸武力的男性更具威胁。最后Elizabeth完成Sally的最终心愿，舞台黑下之前她们最终看见的是一颗虚幻的彗星，彗星所象征的是否就是女性生活中那些转瞬即逝又镜花水月的希望？彗星来了又来，世界在齿轮与光的交响中蜕变，女性却依旧做着相同的家务从未改变，那么我们仍在猎巫吗？女性的处境得到了多少改变呢？

[VICKY · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the play before I went to watched the drama. ‘Women juries’, ‘light or delayed sentence for pregnant women convicts’, the first time I got this kind of knowledge for this 700 years legal history. I tried to find myself in these 13 women and examined myself what I would or can do in their situation.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

A play about women, their work, women’s relationships wit each other, their “role” in society, governance over their own bodies and lives..

I may re-read it again someday.. I feel like there’s even more to it than I gathered.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Love the messages and layers.

[Emma Rosina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't think much of this. I didn't really follow the story very well and struggled to grasp the point of the play.

[Helen Pilkington · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It is impossible to look at the sky at times and not believe in [Heaven].”

[Molly Graham · Rating 1 out of 5]

not a fan

[Liv · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aaaa I’m playing Sally Poppy in the play for my degree, concerned? Kinda. Excited? Extremely.