Actors from Perth Drama Club are to perform the premiere of a play about four suffragette hunger strikers.
Members are busy rehearsing Cat and Mouse which tells the story of the women who were held in Perth Prison in 1914 and subjected to a regime of force-feeding.
Written by Ajay Close, former writer-in-residence of the Fair City, the play will be staged for four nights in Goodlyburn Theatre at Perth College from Wednesday October 19.
The full production has never been performed before and Ms Close, who lives in the city, is delighted it will be finally be staged.
“I’m very pleased the play is going to be seen and I think it will have a huge appeal to a Perth audience,” she said.
“What happened to the women happened in Perth and some of the key places, such as the prison and the doctor’s house, are still here.
“The Perth which was overrun by the suffragettes in 1914 is the same city as today and I think their story and the issues raised are still relevant.”
Cat and Mouse tells the tale of suffragettes Arabella Scott, Frances Gordon, Maude Edwards and Fan Parker and Dr Hugh Ferguson Watson — the doctor who force-fed them.
It focuses on the connection between Arabella — who was fed by stomach tube for five weeks — and her doctor “torturer”.
The pair’s complex relationship lies at the heart of the play.
Cat and Mouse was the focus of a series of rehearsed readings several years ago but Perth Drama Club is the first organisation to stage a full production after member Carolyn Duffin came across the play by chance.
She had enjoyed Ms Close’s most recent novel, Petrol Scented Spring, which is based on the same events, and on researching the book further discovered a play had been written previously.
Ms Duffin, of Blackford, said: “I was intrigued and wanted to know more about the play, Cat and Mouse, so I contacted Ajay.
“She sent me a copy of the script which I read and thought was amazing.
“I didn’t know about the force-feeding here and the fact that Dr Watson was the only man in Scotland willing to do it.
“It’s all part of the fascinating story about how women got the vote today.”
Cat and Mouse is directed by Max Clay with Ms Duffin as Arabella, Linda Coupar as Frances Gordon and Perth Drama Club president Martin Nickolls playing Dr Hugh Ferguson Watson.
The play will be performed for four nights from Wednesday October 19 until Saturday October 22 at 7.30pm in Goodlyburn Theatre.
Tickets cost £10 (£8 concessions) and are available at www.ticketsource.co.uk/perthdramaclub.
