'In modern day Australia, a marriage is pulled apart by mistrust, paranoia and violence. A woman breaks apart in the turmoil.
'In medieval England, a woman has mystic visions. The patriarchs write them off as female madness, but she knows her truth. These visions allow her to be heard—maybe even to connect across centuries.
'In My Dearworthy Darling, threads that run through history are woven into a tapestry. As the strands draw ever tighter, the old languages threaten to tear asunder. What new worlds might open?'
Source: Malthouse Theatre.
Written specifically for feminist theatre company The Rabble.
Produced by Malthouse Theatre at the Beckett Theatre, 2-18 August 2018.
Directors: The Rabble.
Design: The Rabble.
Cast includes Jennifer Vuletic.
'In the early 1410s, after 20 years of marriage, 14 children and countless post-natal visitations from Christ, Margery Kempe persuaded her husband to take a vow of chastity with her. An illiterate middle-class woman, Kempe generally is regarded as having written the first autobiography in English. She dictated it in the third person. And, by god, she writes like Chaucer’s Wife of Bath.'(Introduction)
'In the beginning there is the sound of deep breathing and heartbeat. Woman, the electric Jennifer Vuletic, lies writhing on a rock, splayed as if for sacrifice. Is she in a state of anguish or ecstasy? My Dearworthy Darling ushers us into a space fraught with uncertainty, the kind where questions beget more questions. Fortunately, we are in the deft hands of THE RABBLE, a feminist theatre collective that rejects theatre as a comfortable form of entertainment. The play is an amalgam of the ‘holy theatre’ that Peter Brook wrote of in his ground-breaking work The Empty Space (1968) and the deconstructing feminist gaze of Caryl Churchill.' (Introduction)
'My Dearworthy Darling is a collaboration between playwright, fantasy novelist, poet, and theatre critic Alison Croggon and feminist theatre company The Rabble (Kate Davis and Emma Valente).'
'In the beginning there is the sound of deep breathing and heartbeat. Woman, the electric Jennifer Vuletic, lies writhing on a rock, splayed as if for sacrifice. Is she in a state of anguish or ecstasy? My Dearworthy Darling ushers us into a space fraught with uncertainty, the kind where questions beget more questions. Fortunately, we are in the deft hands of THE RABBLE, a feminist theatre collective that rejects theatre as a comfortable form of entertainment. The play is an amalgam of the ‘holy theatre’ that Peter Brook wrote of in his ground-breaking work The Empty Space (1968) and the deconstructing feminist gaze of Caryl Churchill.' (Introduction)
'In the early 1410s, after 20 years of marriage, 14 children and countless post-natal visitations from Christ, Margery Kempe persuaded her husband to take a vow of chastity with her. An illiterate middle-class woman, Kempe generally is regarded as having written the first autobiography in English. She dictated it in the third person. And, by god, she writes like Chaucer’s Wife of Bath.'(Introduction)
'My Dearworthy Darling is a collaboration between playwright, fantasy novelist, poet, and theatre critic Alison Croggon and feminist theatre company The Rabble (Kate Davis and Emma Valente).'