“Sandy Thomson’s play crumples up the template for elderly women as shown in theatre and replaces it with sturdy Scottish matriarchs. ”
The one thing about getting old is that everyone who can tell you off has died.
Actors Tina Gray and Eilidh McCormick. Photo by Richard Dunton.
Featuring an international cast from Scotland, England, USA and Canada, aged between 75 and 30, D*mned Rebel B*tches* follows sisters Ella and Irene, both in their eighties and still fiercely inhabiting their futures. From the Clydeside Blitz in 1941 to New York in 2012, the women encounter allies, enemies, personal history and fools who think that little old ladies aren’t dangerous. As Hurricane Sandy wrecks Manhattan, Ella hunts down her feckless missing grandchild through fire and flood.
Tired of seeing elderly characters representing metaphors for time and death onstage, D*mned Rebel B*tches is a very personal tribute by writer/director Sandy Thomson to the resourceful, independent and risk-taking Scottish women of the war years’ generation, who lost everything - more than once. The show features music by all of Ella’s favourite females: from Nina Simone to Beyonce.
“The play’s shenanigans resemble Thelma and Louise reinvented for an octogenarian set who will outlive us all.”
photos by Jane Hobson
*D*mned Rebel B*tches is named after a quote attributed to the Duke of Cumberland during the Jacobite uprising, describing women who accompanied their men folk to the battlefield, bringing their children with them to just behind the frontline so that the men would never retreat. As a result, the army was wildly successful. Some folk never learn…
D*mned Rebel B*tches is a companion piece to previous work Pirates & Mermaids, which gained performer Jeremiah Reynolds a Stage Award Best Performer nomination.
Writer/Director Sandy Thomson
Designer Natasha Jenkins
Lighting Designer Roy Fairhead
Producer Gillian Garrity
Dramaturg / Film Designer Jeremiah Reynolds
Music / Sound Design Dave Boyd
Choreography Ruth Mills / Vince Virr
Development Choreography Rosina Bonsou
Production Manager Robbie Fraser
Stage Manager Carrie Taylor
Cast Tina Gray (UK), Geoff Pounsett (Canda), Eilidh McCormick (UK), Jeremiah Reynolds (USA)
STORIES
