The Kin; The Victim; The Shamed

I created original lyrics with schools working on Rabble Theatre’s Henry I performed at Reading Abbey Ruins. As Henry was William the Conqueror’s youngest son, I introduced the stitch for stitch replica of the Bayeux Tapestry at Reading Museum as a starting point. This has:

• 626 human figures
• 190 horses
• 35 dogs
• 506 birds and animals

But only three of the 626 people are women, none of who are formally named. We took these three women as inspiration for lyric creation and learnt medieval music scales.

We labelled the three women – The Kin; The Victim; The Shamed and had discussions about how and why women are portrayed and under/misrepresented in history.

The Kin
Thought to be Edith (c.1025-1075), the wife of Edward the Confessor and the sister of King Harold.

As I look in the mirror, I see blood of blue
A family, a lineage so long and so true
A once perfect picture of nobility
Now cast in a shadow of uncertainty

The Victim
Woman fleeing with child from burning building

Now thou art fleeing whilst losing all feeling
Afraid of what still is to come
Dreaming of tomorrow whilst swimming in sorrow
A sanctuary hidden with nowhere to run

The Shamed
Aelfgyva – she is a mystery as does not appear to be related in any way to the scenes, with a priest, not clear if blessing or chastising. In the borders, at Ӕlfgyva’s feet, is a naked man, imitating the stance of the cleric, perhaps placed there to indicate some kind of scandal associated with her

Accused of a crime that’s faceless with no name
My sentence to walk forever in shame
Denied of my voice a woman most hate
To be scorned and mistrusted, is this my fate

Student feedback included:
The talk about those ancient histories were very educational and it really helped me really vision those days
I learnt that things weren’t very different a long time ago
I love how we don’t just go straight to acting, we get to play old music scales from a long time ago and even have time to make some of the music from the scales as well
It was fascinating

Feedback from Rabble Theatre included:
Thank you for the wonderful sessions you held with JMA and Reading Girls – it had a notable impact on them and gave them some real confidence in creating work for themselves. The connecting of the historical objects and the musical styles to situate the project worked wonders. There was some really positive engagement with the themes after the visit from the museum and musician – specifically the young people wanting to know more about the history of the town.

From 32 student respondents:
93% said they learnt something new
On a scale of 1-10 how much did this increase your knowledge of local heritage? = 7
80% would recommend the activity to others
77% said they would now notice their local heritage more
94% said activities like these made them proud to live in Reading
745 identified as non-White British