Songs and stories with Morna Burdon at Dunnet and Lyth
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A ONE-woman show celebrating women of courage across the centuries comes to Caithness at the end of this month with performances in Dunnet and Lyth.
In Bonnie Fechters: Songs and Stories of Hope and Resistance, Morna Burdon (who devised, directed and performed the piece) takes the audience on a journey of celebration and inspiration as she weaves a tapestry of songs and stories shedding light on many remarkable women whose courage and achievements have often remained hidden and unsung.
The audience is invited to discover the names of Scottish women targeted as witches, hear tales of the girls who survived the Magdalene institution for "fallen women", explore the 1976 Strikers in Saris protest and many more tales as the show journeys from Dornoch to Vietnam to Massachusetts.
“The show tells the stories of women whose bravery, love, inventiveness and human spirit have stood up to injustice and oppression over continents and centuries," Morna said.
"Depending on the venue, there is an opportunity for audience members to stay behind after the show to tell their stories – such as a young woman in the Borders whose gran was the first woman in her village to buy and ride a motorbike in the 1920s, or the woman in Pitlochry who stood up sang a song which she had sung as she was being arrested at Greenham Common. Inspiring stuff!”
Other stores include a late 19th-century Syrian refugee whose son became a famous writer, a wee Scottish girl who played the pipes outside prison gates to support the Suffragettes, and a modern photographer who rode horseback in Mongolia with her six-year-old daughter to record the lives of women there.
Bonnie Fechters is on at the Britannia Hall, Dunnet, on Friday, April 26, at 7.30pm and Lyth Arts Centre on April 27 at 7.30pm.
Tickets for £10 and £6 are available at www.lytharts.org.uk, on 01955 641434 or in person at the arts centre, Monday to Friday, 10am-4pm (plus performance days).
Further information is available at www.mornaburdon.com
Morna Burdon is a seasoned director, writer, performer and singer brought up in Perthshire. She has toured extensively in Scotland – from Shetland to Dumfries – and has directed and performed with a range of international artists from throughout Europe and Africa, also working professionally in Milan, Dublin, Hamburg and Denmark. Her work has ranged from directing large-scale international projects incorporating trapeze and fire-swinging to performing anywhere from libraries to pubs to Glastonbury Festival.
