Topsham and Exeter welcome Suffrage Play

Today (Thursday 4 July), residents of Topsham will welcome Dreadnought South West Association into the town as they continue their journey in celebration of the centenary of The Great Suffrage Pilgrimage. At 11am, the cast of Oxygen will perform Episodes from the play outside Topsham Museum, which will be followed by a commemorative land journey to the train station and on into Exeter, where Oxygen will be performed in full (at 3pm and 7.30pm) at Rougemont Gardens. On Friday 5 July, Oxygen – which has been written by Exeter-based playwright Natalie McGrath – will be performed at the Barnfield Theatre at 7.30pm.

All along the tour, which began at Land’s End on 19 June, performances of the play have been accompanied by corresponding arts and heritage events that celebrate the achievements of all those who participated in the pilgrimage. Topsham Museum has published a booklet about the town’s suffrage history: in 1913, an active branch of the Suffragist movement existed in Topsham, spearheaded by Mrs Frood (wife of local doctor Dr Frood of Little Broadway House). In 1911, Mrs Frood had spoiled her census return by writing "if I am intelligent enough to fill up this paper, I am intelligent enough to put a cross on a voting form! No Vote, No Census!" Mrs Frood marched part of the way with her two daughters and at least six other Topsham women. In the afternoon of 4 July, there will be a ‘Suffragists’ Tea Party’ at the Museum, with a special menu in the tea room and display of information.

Following the performance of Oxygen at Exeter’s Barnfield Theatre on Friday 5 July, Josie Sutcliffe (the play’s director) and Natalie McGrath will conduct a post-show talk that focuses on why getting the vote was such an important achievement, and what it means to women today.

Val Wilson, City Arts and Events Manager for Exeter City Council, which has generously supported the project, said: “The City Council is pleased to support a high-quality project written and produced by a city-based playwright and director. Dreadnought South West is a project that is inspired by the past but so relevant to the present and will reach out to so many people on its journey to London.”

Dreadnought South West’s play, Oxygen, looks at how women’s rights have changed in the last 100 years, and seeks to examine if there has been any realistic shift in power to ensure that women’s voices are heard in society. According to The Stage, Oxygen is “beautiful and uplifting … [and] the ensemble effectively conveys the characters’ emotional resilience with astonishing delicacy, tenderness and subtlety”.

Oxygen is the first production from Dreadnought South West Association, a new organisation that works with arts and heritage to champion women’s voices and stories. As the play tours from Land’s End to London, it questions how women’s lives have changed since 1913.

For tickets to the Rougemont Gardens performances, visit www.exeterphoenix.org.uk/event/oxygen.

For tickets to the Barnfield Theatre performance and post-show talk, visit www.barnfieldtheatre.org.uk/oxygen.