A SOLD out play about the last woman to be publicly hanged in Dorset is back.
The Ballad Of Martha Brown will be performed in Milton Abbas, Broadwindsor and Burton Bradstock next month.
This dark and moving tragic comedy is on tour in Dorset courtesy of Artsreach.
After a sell out tour with Artsreach last summer, the acclaimed Dorset based physical theatre company Angel Exit are back this autumn following high demanded for a re-tour of The Ballad of Martha Brown, a tale of jealousy and passion.
Martha began life as a dairymaid in rural Dorset, a hard life of mud and toil, and after surviving her first husband and her two children, she gave up on the notion of happiness until she met her second husband John Brown.
He was twenty years her junior and theirs was a passionate relationship which descended into domestic violence and infidelity until Martha murdered John with an axe and then accused a horse of killing him.
Angel Exit look at the circumstances that catapulted Martha Brown from being an insignificant milkmaid to an infamous murderess tried in Dorchester County Court and hanged by the infamous hangman William Calcraft in front of 3,000 people.
Presented in the company's rich visual style, blending ensemble storytelling with striking physicality, this new show is spliced through with wicked humour, an original score, macabre songs and live music, as a grim chorus of hollow-eyed storytellers invite you into their mysterious world where reality and fantasy blur as the events of Martha's life are played out under the constant stare of the gallows above.
Expect to be moved by the touching humanity of a relationship on the rocks and find yourself laughing at the absurdity of Martha’s situation, as highlighted by a mischievous chorus of storytellers.!
The play is at Burton Bradstock Village Hall on Saturday October 10. Call 01308 897214 for tickets.
It will also be at Milton Abbey New Barn Theatre
Sun 11 Oct, 4pm. Milton Abbey New Barn Theatre on Sunday October 11. Call 01258 882322 for tickets.
The play is also at Comrades Hall, Broadwindsor, on Saturday October 24. Call 01308 867644 for tickets.
See artsreach.co.uk for more information.
CONTACT ME:
t: 01305 830973
e: joanna.davis@
dorsetecho.co.uk
twitter: @DorsetEchoJo
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