The Welkin

By Lucy Kirkwood

Directed by Joan Bryans

Jericho Arts Centre: April 30 – May 16, 2027
Thursdays/Fridays/Saturdays: 7:30 PM
Sundays: 2:00 PM

A storm is gathering.  Twelve women hold the fate of one condemned soul in their hands.

Set in rural England in 1759, The Welkin begins with a simple question: is Sally Poppy pregnant? If she is, the law may spare her from the gallows. If she is not, she will hang. What follows is a savage, hilarious, and deeply human battle between twelve women dragged from their kitchens and fields to decide the truth.

But this is no polite period drama.  Kirkwood detonates the courtroom genre with razor-sharp wit, volcanic rage, and extraordinary compassion, exposing the machinery of power that has silenced women for centuries — and the impossible choices forced upon them. As the arguments escalate, alliances fracture, secrets erupt, and the room becomes a pressure cooker of class, morality, motherhood, violence, and survival.

"Mighty and magnificent"
~ Financial Times

"Brilliant, brave and bold"
~ What's on Stage

"Ungoverned, furious, layered...sheer gutsy audacity"
~ London Standard

"All muscle, taut and intense"
~ Vulture

CAST:

TBA

PRODUCTION TEAM:

TBA