The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Suffragette play to get first outing
Play about force-fed suffragettes to be performed in Goodlyburn Theatre
Actors from Perth Drama Club are to perform a play about four suffragette hunger strikers.
Members are rehearsing Cat and Mouse, the story of the women who were held in Perth Prison in 1914 and forcibly fed.
Written by Ajay Close, the play will be staged for four nights in Goodlyburn Theatre at Perth College from October 19.
The full production has never been performed before and Ms Close is delighted it will be finally be staged.
“I’m very pleased the play is going to be seen and I think it will have a huge appeal to a Perth audience,” she said.
“What happened to the women happened in Perth and some of the key places, such as the prison and the doctor’s house, are still here.
“The Perth which was overrun by the suffragettes in 1914 is the same city as today and I think their story and the issues raised are still relevant.”
Cat and Mouse tells the tale of Arabella Scott, Frances Gordon, Maude Edwards and Fan Parker and Dr Hugh Ferguson Watson – the doctor who force-fed them.
It focuses on the connection between Arabella and her doctor “torturer”.
The pair’s complex relationship lies at the heart of the play.
Cat and Mouse was the focus of a series of rehearsed readings several years ago but Perth Drama Club is the first organisation to stage a full production after member Carolyn Duffin came across the play by chance.
She had enjoyed Ms Close’s most recent novel, Petrol Scented Spring, which is based on the same events, and on researching the book discovered a play had been written previously.
Ms Duffin, of Blackford, said: “I was intrigued and wanted to know more about the play, Cat and Mouse, so I contacted Ajay.
“She sent me a copy of the script, which I read and thought was amazing.
“I didn’t know about the force-feeding here and the fact that Dr Watson was the only man in Scotland willing to do it.
“It’s all part of the fascinating story about how women got the vote today.”
Cat and Mouse is directed by Max Clay with Ms Duffin as Arabella, Linda Coupar as Frances Gordon and Perth Drama Club president Martin Nickolls playing Dr Hugh Ferguson Watson.
The play will be performed for four nights from Wednesday October 19 until Saturday October 22 at 7.30pm in Goodlyburn Theatre.
Tickets cost £10 (£8 concessions) and are available at www.ticketsource.co.uk/ perthdramaclub.