Women of Abney

Voices from Hackney's history

https://hackney.hk/womenofabney

Based on ‘Women from Hackney’s History’

A Hackney Society and Tower Theatre co-production in association with Abney Park Cemetery Trust.

The women of Abney fought for the right to vote and the right to say no, they transformed the ways we heal and learn, they shattered convention and they thrilled an adoring public. These are their voices and their stories.

Some have prominent graves and grand memorials, some have no headstone or share a common grave. Many turbulent lives came to rest in Abney Park and this film lets us hear from twelve women who left their mark on Victorian England and reshaped our world.

Drawing from the 113 profiles in Women from Hackney’s History, now in its second printing, the film includes the first female balloonist, the nursing pioneer for whom the Welsh health service is named and a poet who withstood barbaric quackery. It tells the rags to riches stories of music hall stars – and the men who reduced them back to rags. We hear from the former prostitute who scandalised polite society, exposed its hypocrisy, changed the consent laws and was rewarded with a prison sentence.

Women of Abney gives voice to two women who are buried, overshadowed by their husbands, under Abney’s largest and best known memorials. The huge and international impact of the Booth family relies on the refusal of its women to be constrained by traditional roles. The splendour of the Bostock lion and the glamour of the circus obscures a history of abuse and its survival.

Cast & Index

00:00 Titles
00:50 Betsi Cadwaladr 1789–1860 Crimean War nurse, Welsh hero, spinner of tales. Played by Joanna Nevin
06:33 Katty King 1851–1891 Won hearts performing burlesque, Hamlet and The Shoreditch Toff. Played by Ruth Sullivan
11:32 Catherine Booth 1829-1890 First of a female dynasty leading the Salvation Army. Played by Tyan Jones
15:07 Rebecca Jarrett 1846–1928 Ex-prostitute jailed for exposing the child sex trade. Played by Lucianne Regan
19:21 Frances Garlick 1880–1947 & Harriet Delph 1862–1944 Education pioneers. Played by Angelika Michitsch
23:06 Margaret Graham 1804–1864 Aeronaut who first claimed the Victorian skies for women. Played by Selina Cadell
28:21 Mary Hays 1759–1843 Early feminist writer and campaigner for women's education. Played by Ruth Sullivan
32:19 Emily Gosse 1806–1857 Poet, religious writer, illustrator. Played by Joanna Nevin
39:30 Ethel Haslam 1881–1961 Suffragette who relished the dangers and delights of militancy. Played by Lucianne Regan
44:40 Susannah Bostock 1864–1929 Proprietor of a global circus empire, survivor of abuse. Played by Emelia Teglia
50:23 Joanna Vassa 1795–1857 Abolitionist daughter of Olaudah Equiano. Played by Tyan Jones
53:49 Nelly Power 1854–1888 Music hall legend, principal boy, rags to riches and back again. Played by Letty Thomas
58:36 Credits

Production Team

Director : Nick Perry
Writers : Rosie Barker, Sue Doe, Wendy Forrest, Lucy Madison
Wardrobe : Kathleen Morrison
Studio Recording : Colin Guthrie
Music by : Luc Vanlaere https://www.harpmuziek.be/
End Title Theme by : Amir Dotan
Location Services : Haydn for Abney Park Trust
Art Department : "Magic Garden" by Ella Doran https://www.elladoran.co.uk/products/...