WATCH: A true tale of sewing and 1900’s sexting, revealed by Miss Lindsay’s Secret – coming to Lyth Arts Centre

A new show coming to Lyth Arts Centre next month is based on a series of real letters written to a Highland seamstress in the early 1900s.

Miss Lindsay’s Secret is written and performed by Maria McDonnel and is based on a series of letters – which spanned a 12 year period before World War 1 – written to a Highland seamstress Miss Willamina Lindsay by the young village man who left to seek his fortune in the Canadian goldrush.

The letters were found hidden in a sewing box at Glenesk Folk Museum during its renovation nearly a century later and form the heart of the show that mixes storytelling, live music and a fascinating snapshot into working class glen lives. Miss Lindsay’s Secret reveals the story of a young man gone to the Klondike goldrush from his home in Glenesk, north east Scotland, and of the woman he writes to, seamstress Minnie Lindsay. In this time of invaded privacy, it questions the morality of sharing their secrets. Do the dead have a voice? Does Miss Lindsay have a choice in having her story told?

It is written and performed by Maria MacDonell, with Alan Finlayson and live music by Georgina MacDonell Finlayson.

Maria said: "These remarkable letters from the Klondike goldrush were hidden long ago at the Glenesk Folk Museum, Angus. They are engrossing. They say as much about Miss Lindsay’s life in the glen as about that of her Yukon gold prospector.

"I created the character of The Curator, along with The Musician and The Man to spin this love story through different threads of time and place and to explore The Curator’s ambivalence about sharing the letters publicly at all. Haven’t we all read things we shouldn’t have? But do we tell everyone? The play seems to touch people in so many different ways. It is a story of stories. We were really pleased to bring it to Fringe this year."

Miss Lindsay’s Secret will be on Thursday, Oct 13 at 7.30pm in Lyth Arts Centre as part of the Northern Stories Festival. More info can be found at: lytharts.org.uk

The show has been called a "mesmerising mix of original live music, drama, and archives which bring the past to the present".

Tickets : £12 (£10)

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