Warriors

About the Play

Warriors and Witches and Damn Rebel Bitches by Mairi Kidd is a must-read. It is an anthology of Scottish women from history, and how we can learn from their stories.

I fell in love with this book in 2020 and am delighted to finally be working on bring this essential text to the stage.

This year (2023) Emma Ruse Productions has produced the R&D for this new devised work. I’m working alongside playwright, Ellen Bradbury to create a stage adaptation of this amazing book.

R&D July 2023

From the 13th-17th July 2023, we were working from Skye Bridge Studios in Kyle of Lochalsh. I find that access to green spaces is really important for me and the work that I make so I try to create work in rural spaces whenever I can. Kyle of Lochalsh was a magical place to make work.

The purpose of this R&D was to generate some material with the influence of other’s creative voices in a devising process. The week would explore some key creative research questions and would generate ideas for Ellen to bring into her writing. The big question for the R&D was: why do we tell these stories? And, after some really hard conversations, we landed on the answer:

We tell these stories so that we can find and understand our own.

The R&D turfed up some problems with the text, particularly in its handling of queerness, and a feeling that the ‘ways to live your life by’ could use some updating.

We spent an equal amount of time searching as we did creating, and navigating challenging chats about the representation of race and queerness in the stories on offer. It was a welcome but heavy reflection that women’s stories are seldom told in our history books – couple that with any intersectionality and the visibility shrinks to almost nothing. We want to do better.

With unending thanks to the team of performers and theatre-makers who made this stage possible and filled the room with such generosity, vulnerability, challenge, love, and creativity. I owe you all so much.