York Theatre Royal – until 1 July 2017. Reviewed by Michelle Richardson
Written by Bridget Foreman and directed by Julie Forster and Katie Posner, Everything is Possible – The York Suffragettes is York Theatre Royal and Pilot Theatre’s latest large scale community production. In total 350 volunteers gave up their time to bring the story to the stage, with a cast of around 150.
We started with being directed to the Piazza outside The York Minster where we were confronted by a mass of people demonstrating, all dressed in modern clothing. Amongst the demonstrators, holding placards, people were singing and playing musical instruments, the energy was palatable. It was all very confusing but we all got carried away, especially with the singing, and joined in with the chanting and demonstrating. I believe the majority of us were either cast members or audience, but there were certainly some tourists thrown into the mix, probably thoroughly confused by what was going on. Suddenly the suffragettes appear, giving a speech and making their stand, before being moved on by the police of the early 20th century and we march back to the theatre. This was certainly a novel introduction to the show and heightened the anticipation for what was to come. I must admit that it has probably been 30 years ago since I last demonstrated, very nostalgic.
The story is about Anne Seymour Pearson and her journey with the suffragettes. She is played by Barbara Marten, most noted for her role in Casualty. We see her getting sucked into the movement by injustice inflicted upon others. After being jailed she becomes more involved and we are treated to the general history of the suffragettes and Emmeline Pankhurst. At times this was quite harrowing, especially the force feeding scene. Amongst the acting we are treated to several newsreels from the day, even Emily Davison’s death at the Derby where everything seemed to change in their favour. Unfortunately that took a lot longer because of the Great War. But change it did, with women getting the right to vote in 1918, but only if they were over the age of 30, women over the age of 21 did not get to vote until 1928.
We are left with a polling station from the present day with all being able to vote.
Marten was the definite star, but the community actors were excellent. Even though the cast was huge, I did not feel that there were too many and it was easy to follow. The first act was actually quite gripping, the second, not so much so, it seemed quite hurried and rushed. In the second act there is what I can only describe as a comedy sketch and although it was quite humorous I am not convinced that it needed to be there, I suppose it did lighten the mood.
I’m glad to see that at the end we got to see the whole cast including the choir, who had been hidden from our view the whole time, providing us with some fantastic singing.
This was such a powerful production and amazing to think this is a community collaboration. All that is left for me to say is well done and thank you to everyone involved and I thoroughly recommend that you catch it whilst you can.
Showing at York Theatre Royal until Saturday 1st July, only the evening performances start outside.