NEWS RELEASE: 11 August 2020
2TimeTheatre keeps busy in these strange times Like almost every theatre company around the world, we’ve been unable to stage any productions during 2020. In 2019 we had a hugely busy and successful year kicking off with a professional read-through of Tilly and the Spitfires by Rachel O’Neill at Nuffield Southampton City space, followed in June by A Fruitful Season: Keats in Winchester by Cecily O’Neill, celebrating the poet’s final creative flourish and the 200-year anniversary of his death. Tilly returned as a fully-fledged production to Winchester Discovery Centre in September with actors Stacy Hart in the role of Beatrice Shilling and Francesca McCrohon as Muriel Shepherd, and directed by Dan O’Neill (movement director Humans, Wurzel Gummidge, The Crown, etc.). First staged by seven performers in the 12th Century St Bartholomew’s Church in October, Cecily’s moving play Lewd Women and Female Felons used archive accounts of the Winchester Bridewell and folk music of the time to illuminate the harsh treatment of ‘lewd women’ for the ‘crime’ of bastardy. The atmosphere was heightened by the knowledge that several of these women and their babies were buried in the churchyard outside Lewd Women and Female Felons had another outing in February 2020 alongside Rachel’s new play in development, The Fasting Girl. They had the dubious privilege of being amongst the last few productions to take place at the Nuffield Theatre before it went into receivership. So that was then. But as Winchester’s tiniest theatre company we have kept busy; Rachel’s play specially written to commemorate the Battle of Britain, Eager for the Air, was shortlisted and down to the last five in the RAF Benevolent Fund Audio Drama competition. Her ten-minute short, Kit-Kats and Cider will be part of a Zoom play-reading on 11 August hosted by Writing Doesn't Have To Be Lonely as part of an evening of new drama and poetry. Sir Walter’s Women, written by Rachel in 2018 and staged in the Great Hall, will be performed on Zoom by the South Devon Players on 28 November. Meanwhile, Cecily is busy with research for future projects, including a drama based on the life of 19th Century novelist Charlotte Yonge. We hope that we can return next year with some more original and innovative dramas. Please keep an eye on our website and social media for further news and keep safe. Www.2timetheatre.com, @2timetheatre, #2timetheatre FB:2timetheatre - ends-
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Sardines Magazine - Lewd Women and Female Felons and The Fasting Girl Scene 1 Plus - Lewd Women and Female Felons Scene 1 Plus - The Fasting Girl Lewd Women and Female Felons and The Fasting Girl selected to be part of Make it SO season at NST Two plays by mother and daughter playwrights, Cecily and Rachel O’Neill, will be presented as part of this year’s Make It SO season, a festival designed to support emerging writers and artists from Southampton and the surrounding areas. Cecily and Rachel co-founded 2TimeTheatre in 2016 and quickly built a reputation for bringing original and historical stories to dramatic life. Lewd Women and Female Felons is a play for voices, based on research done on the lives of many unfortunate women who were sentenced to 12 months hard labour as punishment for having illegitimate babies. Enlivened by songs and ballads of the period, the play offers a glimpse of the lives of the women who suffered such harsh conditions. The Fasting Girl is an original drama that looks at the sacrifice one woman is prepared to make, whatever the cost to herself. Building on the tradition of hunger striking as a means of peaceful protest, this three-hander draws on legend, folklore, religion and the supernatural to create a tense and ambiguous drama. Cecily and Rachel said: ‘This is the first time we’ve had our work presented at the same time in the same place. A first for us professionally and possibly for any mother-daughter playwrights!’. Cecily’s previous project was A Fruitful Season: Keats in Winchester was staged in July as part of the Winchester Festival, and Rachel’s most recent play, Tilly and the Spitfires, was staged as part of last year’s Make It SO and went on to have a full production as part of Winchester Heritage Open Days. 2TimeTheatre: New projects 2020 will present both plays as script-in-hand productions on the same night at Nuffield Theatres Southampton City Space. Performances 17th and 18th February, 6.30 pm and 8.00 pm. Tickets are £5 for each show and available from the box office on 023 8067 1771 or online. Please contact Rachel O’Neill for more information on 2timetheatre@gmail.com and 07821 87904. ![]() This is just a selection of the responses to Lewd Women and Female Felons A powerful performance about the criminalization of poor women with illegitimate children in Georgian England. The use of ballads: brilliant! This research material was woven together in Lewd Women, which turned the tragic history of women and their children incarcerated in the County Bridewell into an extraordinarily poignant acknowledgement and tribute, in the very palce some of them were buried in unmarked graves. I’ll never forget the beautiful ballad solo sung by Eleanor Marsden! As a member of the audience said - ‘if you make a CD of the music from the show, there’s a guaranteed audience’. Emma Clery Another triumph, so deftly humanising a historical subject with skilful touches despite the scantiest of available information... Wonderfully done and beautifully produced! Plaudits, bouquets and five-star reviews... Philip and Lizzie Glassborow Thanks to you and the cast for presenting such a striking preview of the new drama. As you saw from the audience reaction, to have the story presented in dramatic form was extraordinarily powerful. Steve Marper What a fabulous, intimate, thought-provoking and resonant production it was today- amazing voices, both spoken, but particularly sung and so poignant and political, especially when you drew attention to the parlous state of UK prisons today. I so look forward to seeing the themes expanded and evolving over the next few months. ...The solos were incredibly moving, added greatly to each characterisation and definitely affect the audience on another level. I was reminded of West Side Story and how some of the really tricky urban deprivation messages in that script are communicated so effectively with song and dance. Mixed media adds so much vibrancy and throws the awful, inhuman constraints of normative "justice" into sharp relief. Kate Watkins Your play made a deep impression on me. Of course one knows as a fact how these girls suffered, but you really brought them to life. Congratulations! Alys Blakeway I was utterly utterly absorbed by your drama. There was a time-slip just as if a door to the 18th and 19th centuries had opened. Everyone around me was riveted. I felt particularly overcome with emotion when Fanny and baby Rebecca Oliver were mentioned. It was as if I knew them so it was personal. The cast were so convincing...the lewd women were wonderful and their singing too. How clever of you to intersperse the dialogue with authentic songs of the time and to write new ones in the same vein. It must be presented to the wider public. Norma Goodwin ![]() 'Committed to twelve months hard labour in the County Bridewell for being a lewd woman.’ This was the fate of many unfortunate women in Hampshire who gave birth to illegitimate babies in the 18th and early 19th centuries. The Bridewell, a prison designed for lesser offenders, also known as a House of Correction, was located close St Bartholomew’s Church in Hyde, and a number of these women and their babies lie buried in the churchyard. Generated from research by Hyde900 volunteers, Lewd Women and Female Felons is a play for voices, written by local author Cecily O’Neill, Artistic Director of 2TmeTheatre. Enlivened by songs and ballads of the period, the play offers a glimpse of the lives of the women who suffered such harsh conditions in the County Bridewell. Cecily O’Neill said: “‘When I encountered the names of these women in the archives of the Hampshire Record Office I began to imagine what they had suffered, often abandoned by the fathers of their children and too poor to care for the children themselves, and facing the shame of imprisonment for being Lewd Women.’ Cecily’s most recent project was ‘'A Fruitful Season: Keats in Winchester’ which was staged in July as part of the Winchester Festival. The event is part of Hyde900’s King Alfred Weekend and takes place on Sunday 27 October at 4pm in St. Bartholomew’s Church, Hyde. It follows a talk by Dr Helen Paul of the University of Southampton on the history and conditions of the Bridewell at Hyde Parish Hall at 2.45pm. Tickets for each event are £5 (£4 for Hyde900 members, under 16s, free) and are available to book online here: https://www.hyde900.org.uk/events/lewd-women-and-female-felons/ Beatrice Shilling was a pioneering engineer in Britain’s race to dominate the skies at the start of WWII. Obsessed with speed, she raced motorbikes and gained an MSc in Electrical Engineering, marking her out as an unusual woman from the start. Working at RAE, she invented the solution to the design flaw that caused the deaths of British pilots when their Spitfires lost engine power and spiralled out of control during dogfights with the Luftwaffe.
Her simple gadget was cheekily known as ‘'Miss Shilling’s Orifice’. This small object was fitted to the Merlin engine, allowing the Spitfire to engage on equal terms with German planes thereby helping the RAF to gain dominance in the crucial aerial conflicts of the war. Rachel O'Neill, writer, said: "This is a one-act play which was first staged at Nuffield City Space Studio as a 'work in progress' as part of the Make It SO Season, featuring emerging writers and artists from Hampshire. This is the next iteration of the play and features professional Hampshire actors, Stacy Hart and Francesca McCrohon. It’s directed by Dan O’Neill, whose work was most recently seen as the movement director for the Channel 4 series, Humans. and upcoming TV shows Alex Rider and Worzel Gummidge. This play is in stark contrast to my previous play, Sir Walter's Women, but both deal with the unseen and personal lives of their protagonists." Tilly and The Spitfires aims to tell the story of Tilly’s groundbreaking discovery, of her intimate relationship with her friend Muriel, and her frequent clashes with those in authority as she strives to make her voice heard in a war run by men. The performance takes place at Winchester Discovery Centre, 21 September, 8pm. Admission is free but booking in advance is advised. A Fruitful Season: Keats in Winchester’ by Cecily O’Neill. Directed by Rachel O’Neill. Original Music by Rob Sword. St Lawrence’s Church, Winchester, 6-7 July 2019. ![]() In the popular imagination, John Keats’s stay in Winchester in August and September of 1819 was a touristy sojourn, involving long walks along the picturesque water meadows that stretch either side of the River Itchen down to the medieval hospital of St Cross, and culminating in the composition of ‘To Autumn’. In reality, Keats was in the middle of a last-ditch effort to make money from his pen, conscious of the fact that without significant improvement in his finances, he could not marry his fiancée Fanny Brawne. Earlier in July, Keats had left London with Brown for the Isle of Wight, where they worked together in Shanklin on a tragedy, Otho the Great, intended to showcase the talents of the greatest tragic actor of the age, Edmund Kean. Shanklin had soon begun to grate on Keats, however, and he missed a ‘tolerable library’. After a few weeks, with new hope, he and Brown decamped to Winchester. What is drawn out so powerfully by Cecily O’Neill’s splendid play for 2TimeTheatre about Keats’s stay in the market city, ‘A Fruitful Season: Keats in Winchester’, directed by Rachel O’Neill and introduced by Professor Chris Mulvey, is the sense of desperation that quickly began to settle on the poet as Summer drifted into early Autumn. News arrived that Kean was unavailable, dashing Keats’s hopes of a lucrative Drury Lane success. The poet was left pinning his hopes on a new romance, Lamia, which he tried to convince himself had ‘that sort of fire in it’ that would take hold of readers. He was love-sick and, ominously, the sore throat that had plagued him on and off for over a year returned. Young actors Teddy Morris and Joshua MacGregor did a wonderful job of projecting and performing these tensions, desires and disappointments. Morris inhabited Keats’s overheated, increasingly pessimistic imagination in Winchester with aplomb, and MacGregor was equally convincing as the eternally optimistic, gregarious Brown. The pair’s word-perfect rendering of technically demanding passages from Keats’s poetry and letters was remarkable, and fully realised the ambitions of O’Neill’s hour-long, well-attended play, which pulled off the not inconsiderable trick of distilling events and emotions from across that difficult summer into a single animated conversation between Keats and Brown. The bantering energies, shared enthusiasms and loyalties of the pair’s friendship were transferred from page to stage in fine style. Naturally, ‘A Fruitful Season’ paid homage to Keats’s most celebrated achievement in Winchester: the settled achievement of the ode ‘To Autumn’; but – and absolutely rightly – the ode’s seductive sonorities were not allowed to smooth over the angst and self-doubt that marked Keats’s visit to the market city. The audience was left with the poet’s overwhelming sense of failure and lack of legacy. Musical accompaniment was ably provided by guitarist Owen Feeney and singer Polly Perry, including a performance of Rob Sword’s hauntingly lovely original setting of Keats’s lines ‘Ever let the Fancy roam’. The stone and wood-panelled acoustics of St Lawrence’s Church lent everything a mesmerising clarity and presence. It’s to be hoped that O’Neill’s play will receive another outing. It fully deserves one. Richard Marggraf Turley The Keats Foundation Newsletter June 2019
Casting announced for A Fruitful Season: Keats in Winchester Winchester actors take centre stage Local Winchester actor, Teddy Morris, will be playing the part of Keats in 2TimeTheatre’s upcoming production of A Fruitful Season: Keats in Winchester. He joins recent Rose Bruford graduate Joshua MacGregor who plays Keats’ friend Charles Brown in this unique celebration of the poet’s visit to Winchester in 1819. He and his friend Brown found it: ‘The pleasantest town I was ever in.’ Teddy was born and bred in Winchester and was a member of Encore Youth Theatre and took the role of Hamlet in Discarded Nut’s professional production staged in 2017. Joshua has close ties to Winchester, with a grandfather and other family members living in the city. Local musicians, singer Polly Perry (of Polly and the Billet Doux and Polly Gone Wrong), and guitarist Owen Feeney also join the cast. They will be performing Keats’ poetry set to music composed by Rob Sword. The world premiere of A Fruitful Season: Keats in Winchester is directed by Rachel O’Neill and introduced by Professor Christopher Mulvey of the English Project. It is part of The Winchester Festival’s 2019 season. 2TimeTheatre’s previous productions for Winchester Festival include Venus and Adonis, Meeting Miss Austen and An Honest Soldier. Performances are on Saturday 6 July and Sunday 7 July at 3.00pm at St Lawrence’s Church. Tickets £12 from the Winchester Cathedral Box Office 01962 857276 and on-line at www.tickets.winchester-cathedral.org.uk For more information, press tickets and headshots, please contact Rachel O‘Neill, 2timetheatre@gmail.com, 07821879094. Photo caption: Teddy Morris Keats and Joshua MacGregor is Brown. Photo credit: Amazing Image Company About 2TimeTheatre 2TimeTheatre's performance arm was launched in October 2013 with a theatre production of Young Jane, based on the early writings of a young Jane Austen and adapted by Cecily O'Neill followed by her adaptation of Venus and Adonis (2016). Publications include Young Jane (September 2016), followed by Drinking with Dorothy. Meeting Miss Austen, the second collection of plays based on the Juvenilia, was published May 2017 and performed as part of the Winchester Festival in July 2017. Other productions include Jane Austen and The Waterman (2017) and An Honest Soldier (2018). Sir Walter’s Women by Rachel O’Neill was staged at The Great Hall September 2018, and Tilly and the Spitfires also by Rachel O’Neill, at NST in 2019. www.2timetheatre.com 2TimeTheatre presents A Fruitful Season: Keats in WinchesterNews Release: 2 May 2019
A new production celebrating Keats’ visit to Winchester 200 years ago John Keats is one of England’s best-loved poets. The beauty of his poems and his tragically short life make him an intensely romantic figure. A Fruitful Season: Keats in Winchester celebrates his visit to the city in the autumn of 1819. He and his friend Charles Armitage Brown found it: ‘The pleasantest town I was ever in.’ Drawn entirely from Keats’ letters and poems, the script includes his delightful descriptions of Winchester, an account of the writing of his most popular poem Ode to Autumn, and his obsessive love for his ‘Bright Star’ Fanny Brawne. Keats’ months in Winchester mark his last great burst of poetic creativity, before the disease that killed his brother took hold. He died of consumption at the age of 25, believing that his work would soon be forgotten. Writer Cecily O’Neill said: “I already knew and loved the great Odes and dramatic poems, but working on the script of A Fruitful Season, I discovered that Keats’ great ambition was to become a successful playwright. While he was here, he worked on a tragedy with Brown, who also features in the play. It was accepted at Drury Lane Theater (sic) but never staged, so I feel I am honouring his ambition with this production.” With original music by Robert Sword and performed by professional actors, this world premiere is introduced by Professor Christopher Mulvey of the English Project. 2TimeTheatre’s previous productions for Winchester Festival include Venus and Adonis, Meeting Miss Austen and An Honest Soldier. Performances are on Saturday 6 July and Sunday 7 July at 3.00pm at St Lawrence’s Church. Tickets £12 from the Winchester Cathedral Box Office 01962 857276 and online at www.tickets.winchester-cathedral.org.uk For more information, press tickets and headshots, please contact Rachel O‘Neill, 2timetheatre@gmail.com, 07821879094. 2TimeTheatre is delighted to announce that Rachel O'Neill's play Tilly and the Spitfires has been selected to be part of Nuffield City Theatre's Make it SO Spring season.
Beatrice Shilling was a pioneering engineer in Britain’s race to dominate the skies at the start of WWII. Obsessed with speed, she raced motorbikes and gained an MSc in Electrical Engineering, marking her out as an unusual woman from the start. Working at RAE, she invented the solution to the fatal design flaw that caused the deaths of British pilots when their Spitfires lost engine power and spiralled out of control during dogfights with the Luftwaffe. Her simple gadget was cheekily known as ‘'Miss Shilling’s Orifice’. This small object was fitted to the Merlin engine, allowing the Spitfire to engage on equal terms with German planes thereby helping the RAF to gain dominance in the crucial aerial conflicts of the war. Rachel O'Neill, writer, said: "We'll be presenting this ‘'work-in-progress’ as a two-hander with professional Hampshire actors, Stacy Hart and Francesca McCrohon. It’s directed by Dan O’Neill, whose work was most recently seen as the movement director for the Channel 4 series, Humans. This play is in stark contrast to my previous play, Sir Walter's Women, but both deal with the unseen and personal lives of their protagonists." Tilly and The Spitfires aims to tell the story of Tilly’s groundbreaking discovery, of her intimate relationship with her friend Muriel, and her frequent clashes with those in authority as she strives to make her voice heard in a war run by men. Performances will take place at 8pm Wednesday 27 February and 6.30pm on Thursday 28 February at the Studio at NST. Tickets are £5 and are on sale now from https://www.nstheatres.co.uk/city |
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