BRAVEHEART @ MacBRAVEHEART ... Wallace's Women

 

 

 

 

A new two-act, comedy-drama, 'Wallace's Women' was written specially for the 1997 Wallace 700 celebrations by Margaret McSeveney and Elizabeth Roberts. The play brings to the fore for the first time the unsung contribution of the women in Scottish history - in this case Wallace's mother, wet-nurse, girlfriend and wife, a healer who saved his life and a Frenchwoman. The play, written in Scots, centres on the celebration of the Celtic pagan feast of Beltaine on May 1st in two momentous years: 1296 and 1297. There are twelve characters in the play for six female actors.

We saw the play performed at the Smith Museum & Art Gallery in Stirling on Sunday 2nd November, 1997. Linda's review follows:

I loved Wallace's Women. These women were gutsy and funny and strong and lovable. I wanted to be them all. I wanted to sit with them and gossip about William Wallace. I wanted to get drunk with them and dance at the feast of Beltaine. This was real history told by the women who knew Wallace, from birth through marriage and fatherhood to death. Watching and listening to these women made me understand what Wallace must have meant to the ordinary people of Scotland.
This play marks an important point in the history of Scotland. It was written to mark the 700th commemorative year of Wallace's exploits in Lanark and at Stirling Bridge. It is an excellent example of the richness of our cultural and literary heritage, but it it more than that. The play celebrates the unique part played by the largely forgotten women, women without whom Scotland would never have had a William Wallace, for it was they who nurtured the boy and created the man.

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