Cirrus@Austlit

'Poxed is based on the life of Lady Mary Montagu, one of the most remarkable women of the eighteenth century.

'When smallpox sweeps through London, Lady Mary, whose own fabled beauty has been destroyed by the pox, takes the courageous decision to have her daughter inoculated a procedure she witnessed while living in Constantinople. Thus she becomes the reluctant champion of inoculation in London (preceding Edward Jenner by many decades), facing the hysterical prejudice of those who scorn a proven method simply because it is practiced by old Muslim women in Turkey. Not until 1979 will she receive acknowledgement for her pivotal role in saving millions of lives.

'Poxed is infused with the beautiful music of George Frideric Handel, a friend and contemporary of Lady Mary.

'Written in a comic, post-modern style, Poxed juxtaposes the grounded, sensible, almost contemporary character of Mary with the ridiculous, pompous and larger than life eighteenth century men around her.'

Source: Tasmanian Theatre Company.