Monumental: Playwrights unite to address lack of statues of women in Edinburgh

Walk around Edinburgh’s streets and you’re more likely to find a statue dedicated to a famous animal than a named woman.

At last count, the likes of Greyfriars Bobby and Wojtek the Bear outnumbered just eight women honoured in the capital. That only increases tenfold when considering the men.

Now, a new theatrical walking tour, Monumental, aims to address the issue, exploring the lives of five women ingrained with the city.

Playwright and producer Rachel O’Regan was inspired to start the project after reading Sara Sheridan’s book Where Are The Women?, which imagines a world where historically sidelined females are honoured on our best known landmarks.

© Alamy Stock Photo

“I wanted to create something where we could have these stories told in a way that was really visible and unapologetically in the public space,” Rachel, of F-Bomb Theatre, said.

“That’s where the idea of doing them outside came from, creating these monuments through the art of theatre.

“There’s plenty of historical walking tours in Edinburgh, so it’s kind of taking that form, a little bit tongue in cheek, pretending we’re on one of those.”

Actors play the roles of five important women from across centuries of history, and their stories are written by up and coming writers based in Edinburgh.

Rachel said: “It feels really satisfying to support the work of early-career female playwrights in a time where the arts landscape in Scotland is so shaky.”

Maggie Dickson

Rachel’s own piece for the project focuses on Musselburgh-born Maggie Dickson, who survived an 18th century execution.

She’d become pregnant after an affair with the son of the Kelso innkeeper she worked for, keeping it secret to save her job. The baby, sadly, was born prematurely and died.

Maggie left the body on the banks of the Tweed, where it was found and traced back to her.

Authorities tried her for causing the child’s death and she was hanged at Grassmarket in 1724.

When her body was taken away, though, there were signs of life in the coffin.

She was freed, living another forty years as ‘Half Hangit’ Maggie’. A bar overlooking the her ‘execution’ site is named after her.

© Supplied

“You have that immediate reaction of ‘wow, she cheated death’,” Rachel said.

“But then you hear about the layers of oppression she had to overcome and the violence she was subjected to, it’s actually quite poignant.

“People do know about her story, but more in passing as a local legend. I’ve been trying to understand how she must have felt being in that situation and dealing with the trauma.”

Clara Marguerite Christian

Another of the women featured is Clara Marguerite Christian. Born in Dominica, in 1915 she became the first black woman to enrol at Edinburgh University.

Director and performer Jaïrus Obayomi tells the story of how she faced the barriers of  colonialism, race and gender.

The grandmother of broadcaster Moira Stuart, Clara married fellow Caribbean student Edgar Fitzgerald Gordon in 1917 and dropped out of her degree after having their first child.

The family moved to Bermuda in 1920 after a brief spell in Kingussie.

“Clara is a fascinating figure; capable, intelligent, adventurous and activist,” Jaïrus said. “This is plain from the way she lived her life.

“All told, writing about a real person, extrapolating from the scant information about them, is both exciting and daunting. I found myself questioning how much I could invent, whether I was taking too many liberties with the gaps or trying to impose a beast narrative in the messy, disconnected moments of someone else’s life.

© Supplied

“The historicity was also a question – I didn’t want to try to mimic a 1910s voice for her, because the whole point of the layers of past and future in this project is that Edinburgh is rich and replete with them now.

“People in the past spoke the vital language of the their times, not an old-timey parody. It’s not a museum piece because Edinburgh is not a static, museum city – even after 900 years.”

Bessie Watson

© Edinburgh Central Libraries / Wikimedia

Writer Hannah Low’s piece for the project focuses on the story of Scotland’s youngest suffragette, Bessie Watson.

Born in 1900, the talented piper joined the Women’s Social and Political Union aged 9.

She played in a Edinburgh pageant of historical Scottish women, ending with a rally led by Emmeline Pankhurst at Waverley Market, and would pipe on the platforms at the city’s station when women’s rights campaigners were being transported to jail down south.

She wore ribbons in her hair in the colours of the suffragette campaign, and was later presented with a brooch by Christabel Pankhurst, which Bessie then herself gave to Margaret Thatcher in 1979.

© Supplied

Hannah said: “Bessie is amazing. Her story will take place on Waverley steps, which is where she piped in support of the suffragettes.

“Her story should be told everywhere and it’s a really big honour to be able to be a part of making other people understand what amazing and inspiring things she did.

“What’s really special about the show is I didn’t know these women before, which is devastating, but it’s amazing we have the opportunity to give a voice to their stories and make these historical figures really accessible to a Scottish audience.

“Not everybody is a historian and they shouldn’t have to be to know about the amazing women from where they come from.”

Saint Triduana

Kirin Saeed takes on the story of venerated Saint Triduana, sometimes known as Saint Trøllhaena, Trodline or Tredwell, who is estimated to have lived in the 4th century and associated with the miraculous healing of blindness.

She first settled at Rescobie near Forfar. Legend says she tore her eyes out and gave them to a Pict king to ward off his unwanted affections.

She spent her later life at Restalrig, Lothian and her memory is also honoured at St Tredwell’s Chapel on the island of Papa Westray in Orkney, and chapels at Ballachly in Caithness and Loth in Sutherland.

© Supplied

“Being Asian, visually impaired and female, it’s like loads of things are stacked up against me and to be given this opportunity was incredible,” Kirin said.

“I wanted to play with the idea of seeing and not seeing and how that we sometimes take the visual world for granted.

“For people who are disabled in one way or another, we get forgotten very often and focussed on one bit about us. There’s lots more to being visually impaired, what we’ve achieved and the choices we make.

“What was for me really challenging about this piece was that I didn’t want to run away from the spirituality side of it, and that has a clash with disability sometimes.

“I wanted to have that balance and there are things I get the audience to think about and feel about and I wanted connections to be put in there.”

Elizabeth Wiskemann

Writer Emery Schaffer also found a poignant personal connection to the story of the University of Edinburgh’s first female professor, Elizabeth Wiskemann.

Before working there, the London-born journalist covered the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s and the secretly gathered intelligence during the war, including some of the first reports of the horrors of Auschwitz.

“Although she is the first female university professor at the University of Edinburgh, her real kind of claim to fame that no-one ever really talks about was that she was one of the first people to tell the British government what the Nazi Party was really about,” Emery said.

© Supplied

“It gave me real goosebumps. One of her big accomplishments was reporting where Hungarian Jews were going. My grandmother is Hungarian Jewish, growing up in Budapest largely during that time.

“I was so excited to dive into the story of a woman who helped the people I came from.

“There’s so much story, so little time. We’re really getting into the minds and the lives of these people in seven minutes and that’s it.”

More statues?

Queen Victoria and Craigmillar Festival Society founder Helen Crummy are among the women who currently have statues in Edinburgh.

Literary heavyweights in Liz Lochhead, Jackie Kay and Naomi Mitchison are also celebrated with busts at Edinburgh Park.

The city will get at least one more when renowned doctor and suffragist Elsie Inglis is eventually honoured.

But plans unveiled earlier this year faced a backlash over the design and the choice of a male sculptor, Alexander Stoddart.

In the meantime, it’s hoped the tour will return for further runs and in other cities where under-representation is replicated.

“There’s a lot more women who deserve recognition and it’s only right we ask for it,” Rachel added.

---

Visit fbombtheatre.co.uk/monumental