Details

"I often dream that I'm dancing. Over the waves. A cross between dancing and flying. And then I wake up and I'm bed bound, earth bound and wearing a corset." Tynemouth, 1844. Harriet Martineau, leading radical thinker, feminist and anti-slavery campaigner of her day, seeks refuge from the claustrophobic demands of London society, with her needlepoint and a telescope in an attic room on Front Street. But instead of escape, she finds an unequal world in need of her attention. This is a world of racial intolerance and gender imbalance, of eccentric scientific practices such as mesmerism and phrenology. A world where a negligent husband may die from a pig falling on his head in the street. On her comic journey to combat injustice, Harriet also learns some home truths about herself along the way.

Creatives/Company

Author: Shelagh Stephenson