★★★★ from The Stage for POLSTEAD

More reviews are coming in for POLSTEAD by Beth Flintoff which opened on Ipswich Watefront on 11th July and played in Peterborough last week. Take a read at two recent reviews from The Stage & Ipswich24 Magazine...

Shot, strangled, bludgeoned, and buried under a barn in men’s clothes, Maria Marten’s murder was one of the 19th century’s most infamous. But Eastern Angles’ Polstead, currently engaged in a short regional tour, is a smart and sensitive study, not of her death, but her life.

Beth Flintoff’s script, developed with input from domestic abuse survivors, is full of empathy, a conscious act of reclaiming the woman’s story from her killer, William Corder, whose outrageously erratic behaviour often overshadows any telling of this tale. Here, he is entirely absent.

Director Hal Chambers handles the grim subject with delicacy, filling the performance with movement, singing, and hopefulness. The strong cast show off effervescent chemistry as they spar, tease, and comfort one another, with Lydia Bakelmun particularly impressive as worldly, fearless Sarah. Elizabeth Crarer, meanwhile, is extraordinary as Maria, conducting raw emotion like a live wire, but wringing tremendous nuance from the role just the same. As her coercive lover gradually erodes her sense of self and sanity, she becomes an increasingly unreliable narrator, changing her story, accusing the audience of callousness and complicity in her plight.

Luke Potter’s soundtrack is rich and transporting, with vivacious folk reels stretched out with sustained notes, scratchy fiddles, and yearning, live-sung vocal harmonies made tense and thrilling with bluesy touches.

The set, by Verity Quinn, is sturdy and atmospheric, built around a movable archway and a solid barn wall, shafts of golden light seeping between the sturdy planks to occasionally beautiful, occasionally oppressive effect.

An extremely talented all female cast brings the story of Maria Marten and the true story of her murder in the Red Barn to life in Eastern Angles latest offering – Polstead.

The Murder in the Red Barn is one of those tales that is fixed in the history of Suffolk. A young woman killed by her lover William Corder, his subsequent trial and hanging, public outrage and fascination with the twists and turns of the plot. A visit to Moyses Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds and you will find some gruesome mementos of Corder’s execution, but what about Maria Martin, who was she and how did she end up buried in the floor of a barn?

Beautifully written by Beth Flintoff, Polstead answers these questions, telling the story of Maria in the most dramatic and captivating way.

The strong acting and onstage chemistry sets the scene for what life was like to be a woman, struggling to make ends meet in the 1820s. And, unlike most tales about murder, the focus is very much on Maria, who doesn’t meet her assailant until just before the interval.

Polstead is an amazing piece of theatre that carries you along with twist and turns a plenty, you certainly don’t expect humour in a piece about such a brutal murder and yet it’s there, in just the right places and at just the right time. With a clever set design, fabulous lighting and music and brilliant costumes, this is one piece of theatre that will really move you.

Polstead is more than a murder tale it’s the story of women, and of how the struggles of life bring about the most strongly bonded friendships. Maria Martin was an amazingly strong young woman, who was born on the wrong side of the poverty line and yet managed to make ends meet, her only downfall was to meet a man who was evil to the core, who took advantage of her and ultimately took her life…

IPSWICH24 MAGAZINE, Wendy Cook

The show is in Semer this week - near Polstead itself in a real tithe barn! Several performances have already sold out, however we have tickets still available for next week at Debach Airfield near Woodbridge. Click on the event page here to find out more and book tickets.