Theatre / News
‘Female-led perspective of violence and womanhood’ in play within bombed-out church
Inspired by the myth of the swan maiden, Pigeon Maiden delves into questions surrounding the relationship between violence, innocence and the male gaze.
Written by Millie Haldane, who completed her MA in drama writing at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Pigeon Maiden, which is being performed just twice at Temple Church, dives into the complex and unanswerable questions about what it means to be a woman in a 21st century society.
“I’m really obsessed with writing about the connection between femininity and birds,” Haldane told Bristol24/7.
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“When you live in a patriarchy, the semantics of femininity are really closely tied to being inferior to male semantics.
“You see the derogatory kind of words that people use for a woman like ‘bitch’, which is connected to animals. There’s something to be said about women becoming beasts I think.”
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The original swan maiden tale explores a man who steals the wings of a young swan and takes her away to marry her.
Haldane describes wanting to “subvert” this tale of supposed romance to focus on its violent nature: “We wanted to explore how the cyclical nature of violence can erupt in women only.”
Pigeon Maiden is spearheaded by women, with the play being directed by Helen Morley and designed by Millie Richmond.
The trio met while doing their masters in what Haldane describes as “three moving parts that came together so nicely”.
Haldane and Richmond first visited Temple Church just off Victoria Street during a writing task to design a project for a site-specific place.
“It’s such beautiful piece of architecture,” Haldane said. “It just seemed like a fantastic kind of provocation to explore female-led narrative.”
Temple Church is owned by English Heritage, a charity that manages and preserves hundreds of historical sites.
After Haldane and Richmond’s request for funding got rejected by Arts Council England, English Heritage got in touch and secured some funding for them
As a result, they got into contact with Insane Root who were looking to bring in smaller up-and-coming companies as a contingent of their funding.
The importance of accessible theatre is highly regarded by the Glaswegian-born writer: “When you’re making a piece of theatre that maybe only speaks to a certain demographic, it’s so important that you have all the accessibility in place.
“It’s such a complex and naughty topic that we are exploring that to charge people to come and watch is not didactic in any way.
“We’re offering a perspective that begins a conversation.”
The desire to spark important conversations is what Haldane hopes people take away from watching Pigeon Maiden.
She said: “We’re not saying that if you’re a bird, you can escape things like street violence. We’re offering a perspective that begins a conversation.
“It’s so important that everyone understands the skeleton and fabric of the play being made.”
Pigeon Maiden is showing at Temple Church at 7.30pm on Sunday and Monday. To book free tickets, visit www.insaneroot.org.uk
Main photo: Craig Fuller
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