Theatre 2025: The Welkin @ Soulpepper Baillie Theatre

The Welkin is the fictionalized story by playwright Lucy Kirkwood which is based on historical legal precedence and practice.  In 18th Century England, if a woman was sentenced to be executed while pregnant, she could “plead the belly”.  A jury of 12 women who had personally experienced pregnancy (and thus considered “experts”) were assembled to determine the veracity of the claim.  If they deemed her claim to be true, the execution would be stayed and converted into a banishment to “the colonies”, thus sparing her life (as well as the baby’s).

In this play, Sally Poppy is a poor, crass and unlikeable young woman with a troubled upbringing who left her unhappy marriage to run off with her lover Thomas.  The pair have been convicted of brutally murdering and dismembering a wealthy young girl and both are sentenced to be executed.  In fact, Thomas has already been hanged for the crime.  Sally has declared that she is with child, although it is early days and she is not yet showing.  A group of twelve matrons have been assembled to determine if there is truth to her claim.  The women of this “jury” are to be sequestered in a cold, dark room without access to food, drink, fire (heat) or light, so as to compel them to come more quickly to a unanimous verdict.  There is documented evidence that this harsh practice was actually used on male juries during this period in history but whether these methods were applied to a female jury is less clear.  This may merely be included in the play for dramatic purposes.

Most of the women did not willingly agree to participate in the jury since the process would take them away from chores and duties at home.  The few women who voluntarily signed up to “see justice done” were wealthy and had the luxury of time.  It is clear that the women do not have the training or medical expertise to render a valid judgement based on fact.  Much of their discussions of how to determine if a woman is pregnant are based on unscientific anecdotes, superstitions and personal experiences.

The one woman who should have carried some credibility is the midwife Lizzy, who had delivered many of the children for the women in the jury.  She shows compassion for Sally and wants to give her the benefit of the doubt.  Others feeling less charitable are basing their judgement on classism against the poor, horror at the crime that Sally is complicit in, calling her evil and the devil’s spawn, or harbouring prejudice against her based on previous crimes that she is deemed to have committed including theft and potentially harming another boy.  Although their job is to determine if she is pregnant, it is difficult for the women not to judge her based on her crimes instead and assume that she is lying.  When the option arises to get the opinion of a male doctor, the women spurn Lizzie’s expertise in his favour, highlighting the misogyny and sexism of the times, even amongst women.

Being touted as “12 Angry Women”, the parallels to the 1954 play/Henry Fonda movie “12 Angry Men” are apparent.  This includes one woman trying to sway the opinion of the others, and the juror who just wants to get it over with so that she can leave and will vote whichever way is more expedient to set her free.  There are also elements of The Crucible with references to witchcraft, demons, superstitions and mob mentality while the ending gives a nod to Of Mice and Men.

One underlying theme throughout the play is the cyclical nature of oppression as well as class and gender inequality as symbolized by Halley’s Comet which was passing by during the timeframe of the play.  The comet represents spirituality and a sign from heaven, but its cyclical nature is also used to emphasize how not much has changed through the generations.  To further emphasize this point, Kirkwood includes intentionally jarring anachronisms throughout the play.  Within the dialog, she includes modern swear words and inexplicable references to modern technology such as “aeroplanes”.  In one scene, a song is sung in the cadence of a hymn but eventually it starts to sound familiar.  The song ends up being Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” whose lyrics involve a couple making a deal with God to be allowed to understand each other’s perspectives.

But the most out of the blue anachronism occurs in the middle of a heated debate between the women when suddenly a modern-day housekeeper comes out with a vacuum cleaner, pushing it around for a few minutes while listening to music from her headphones, and then departing without a word.  This headshaking event was incorporated to replace the ending scene of Kirkwood’s actual play where all twelve women of the jury appear on stage in current day dress and silently perform modern tasks such as using a dust buster, ironing while watching TV, defrosting a freezer, etc. when they look up and see the comet again.  This scene would have paralleled a scene at the beginning of the play when the twelve women are shown performing 18th century tasks.  That sequence would have driven home the point that Kirkwood was trying to make while the replacement snippet was just confusing.  I understand why they cut out this final scene since it would have diluted from the shocking event that happens just before it, so there are pros and cons for both artistic decisions.

This show was a co-production between Soulpepper and Crow’s Theatre.  As always, you can count on a Crow’s show to be thought-provoking if not always cheerful or heartwarming.  For that, we need to go to back Mirvish Theatres and re-watch Tell Tale Harbour.