1515
“YOU CANNOT EXPECT to be invited to the
table; you must demand they set your place” –
Sara Wesker’s determination and drive was
vital to empowering women in the workplace.
Chopped Liver and Unions returns to the
Fringe after a successful run in 2023 and a
transfer to New York as part of the Brits Off
Broadway season.
Performer Lottie Walker will present an
extended version of J.J. Leppink’s play.
It takes audiences deeper into the struggles
of one of the most dynamic and colourful
figures in the history of trade unionism and the
battle for women’s rights.
A female-driven production, it brings to life
a figure who was familiar across the whole of
London’s East End a century ago.
She strove for better pay and conditions for
women textile workers, founded a women’s
union and fought Mosley’s fascist Blackshirts at
the Battle of Cable Street.
It’s a compelling story about some of the
formative campaigns to oppose the exploitation
of women.
Sara points out that they: “do not have
money, or power, or physical strength. Striking,
and raising our voices in song, are the only
tools that we have.”
Lottie, a working class East Ender, says it is
very much a play for the world today.
She said: “Look around and you’ll see many
of the same problems that Sara witnessed in
the 1920s and 30s - families struggling to make
ends meet, women being exploited, fascism on
the rise, and appalling national and
international injustice.
“This play shows how Sara raised a banner of
resistance, sacrificing her own personal
happiness in the process, in order to begin
building something better for us all.”
The extended show goes further into the
story of this largely forgotten heroine
and includes more protest songs and
images from the era.
Music was of especial importance
as Sara led the “singing strikers” of
1928 – female garment workers
who, lacking any strike pay, sang
on the picket lines in return for
donations from passers-by.
The play is relevant right now as
the prospect of industrial action for
equal pay has been growing across
Scotland.LISTINGS
Paradise in St Augustines – The
Studio (Venue 152)
Tickets here. https://tickets.
edfringe.com/whats-on/
chopped-liver-and-unions
Follow @bluefire_tcDemand your place at the table – Sara
Wesker’s battle for women’s rights
INTRIGUE, BETRAYAL, unrequited
love – enter the world of Elizabeth I
as she struggles to lead a turbulent
kingdom riven by the ambitions of
power-hungry enemies and under
constant threat of foreign invasion.
One of the characters who looms
larger than almost any other is, of
course, her cousin Mary, Queen
of Scots.
Carole Levine’s play provides a
glimpse into the Virgin Queen’s
innermost thoughts and fears as the
text skilfully interweaves Elizabeth’s
own letters with the words of
Shakespeare.
And one of Elizabeth’s biggest
challenges is how to deal with Mary,
Scotland’s abdicated queen,
expelled by Protestant reformers
who called her a “whore”.
Then followed years of plotting in
which Mary tried to have Elizabeth
overthrown. Finally, execution.
The play is riveting because it
brings us a close as it is possible to
get to Elizabeth’s thoughts and
feelings about unfolding events.Robert Dudley, the Spanish
Ambassador and Mary I all figure
prominently.
Ascending the English throne at
one of the most vibrant and stormy
periods in the country’s history,
Elizabeth was a remarkable woman.
A canny stateswoman and
inspirational leader, she was tasked
with holding together a small
Protestant nation surrounded by
hostile, mostly Catholic, powers and
doing so as a single woman in an
overwhelmingly male and
misogynistic culture.
Elizabeth I in Her Own Words is a
unique portrait of the last of the
Tudor dynasty – one of history’s
most compelling and enigmatic
figures, created by a writer deeply
immersed in the period.
Levine is the Willa Cather Professor
of History and Director of the
Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Program at the University of Nebraska.
Furthermore, she’s the author or
editor of 16 books including The
Heart and Stomach of a King:Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex
and Power, The Reign of Elizabeth I,
and the edited collection, Scholars
and Poets Talk About Queens.
Her play draws back the veil on a
monarch who was revered by many
as Gloriana, but whose personal life
and political realities were always
complex and often dark.
The show is by the female led
team of Lynn Nichols, director,
Tammy Meneghini, who plays
Elizabeth and producer Penny Cole
whose company, Flying Solo!
Presents are Fringe stalwarts.
Together they bring to life the
story of the woman who faced
down the Spanish Armada,
overcame rebellions, struggled to
reconcile religious divisions and
endured deep personal heartache.LISTINGS
Venue: theSpace@Surgeons’ Hall –
The Haldane Theatre (Venue 53)
Tickets here. https://tickets.
edfringe.com/whats-on/elizabeth-
i-in-her-own-wordsTriumph, glory, loneliness, heartache -
The life of Elizabeth I as told in her own words
Lottie Walker as Sara WeskerTammy Meneghini
as Elizabeth