Anne Askew: A Woman of Courage in Tudor Lincolnshire – An afternoon of drama and music
The Medieval Studies Research Group and Script in Hand invite you to a free performance of a play by Margaret Crompton, including 16th Century music from members of Sixteen Eighty Five, ‘Anne Askew: A Woman of Courage in Tudor Lincolnshire’ on Saturday 1 April 2023, 2pm – 4pm at St Mary le Wigford Church, High Street (near the Railway Station), Lincoln.
Admission is free (donations are welcome for Historic Charities of Wigford – JAQS Trust – Relief of Need)
Overview:
Anne Askew of South Kelsey read the Bible illegally in Lincoln Cathedral and was harassed by priests. In London, caught up in political conspiracy against Queen Katherine Parr, she was tortured and burnt (1546). In prison, she wrote about her interrogations. The manuscript was smuggled out to be published by John Bale. A copy of the 1st edition is held in the Wren Library, Lincoln Cathedral. She is commemorated in the new Exhibition Gallery.
Anne is played by two actors. In 2023, Anne (1) converses with Eve who is reluctantly reading her own Bible in the Cathedral. Eve meets Anne’s father Sir William, husband Thomas Kyme, Bishop John Longland, Dr John Bale, and a modern Scholar. Anne (2) reads from her own book. The script explores freedom and peaceful protest, raising questions as relevant in 2023 as 1546: Sir William asks, ‘For whom would you go to the stake, like my Anne?’
Script-in-Hand performs staged-readings of original plays – with script in hand. Our plays are works of imagination, based on the lives of real people, whom we represent with respect. As far as possible, we use material for which there is evidence. We wear a neutral ‘uniform,’ (black trousers/skirt, with coloured tops). Like listening to a radio play, we ask you to use your imagination and join us in this time-out-of-time – which is drama.
Script in Hand performances of plays by Margaret Crompton in Lincoln:
2018 The Sellwood Girls (St Mary Magdalen Church)
2019 Anne Askew, a woman of courage in Tudor Lincolnshire (County Assembly Rooms)
2019 (with John Crompton) When Queen Victoria Came to Tea (OXFAM Bookshop; British
Federation of Women Graduates party);
2021 Anne Askew [revised] (Cathedral Chapter House)
2021 Women of the Cathedral [sequence of poems] (Cathedral Chapter House)
2022 Katherine Swynford and the Countess Joan (Lincoln University Medieval Week;
County Assembly Rooms)
2023 Forthcoming productions:
Katherine Swynford and the Countess Joan: for Katherine Swynford Society Study Day
Saturday May 27th 2.00 pm Cathedral Chapter House (booking Eventbright)
The Bolingbroke Tales: Saturday June 17th St Mary le Wigford Church (admission free,
donations requested).
Play scripts by Margaret Crompton and by John Crompton are available online.
Story submitted by Renée Ward
rward@lincoln.ac.uk