Hush Now

An ambitious countrywide series of digital and live performances that will give voice to the unmarried mothers who were stigmatised and hidden away in Mother & Baby Homes.

HUSH NOW

For over 100 years, unmarried women who fell pregnant were stigmatised and hidden away in Mother and Baby Homes and Magdalene Laundries. Contrary to current understanding, this was not just in Ireland but across the UK and beyond. We pass these buildings every day, largely repurposed, largely forgotten, the stories they carry staying firmly within their walls.

To give voice to the ‘unheard’ women who were sent there, in 2019 Feral Productions collaborated with Ledbury poet Sara-Jane Arbury who turned archival research into verse. Her verses were then transformed into theatrical songs by Olivia Preye and performed in Hereford in a series of promenade performances across nine different locations.

DIGITAL PREMIERES

Thanks to funding from the Arts Council, Herefordshire Community Foundation and Unity Trust, Hush Now returned in March 2021.

Together with our Courtyard co-producers we revived, redeveloped and transferred the production from Hereford to the Black Country.

Adapted for the stage and screen from Feral’s original site-specific production, Hush Now is a piece of digital theatre giving voice and visibility to Herefordshire’s unmarried mothers who were stigmatised, silenced and hidden away in Mother and Baby Homes.

The individual short pieces are available to watch on our YouTube channel.

CREATIVE COMMUNITY HUB

Funding from Arts Council England also enabled the project to grow into Worcestershire in 2023. A series of workshops were held at Swan Theatre, Worcester, Ledbury Poetry House and at The Courtyard, Hereford. Workshops explored the stories of unmarried mothers in Worcestershire, transforming history through poetry, song and embroidery with writer Sara-Jane Arbury, composer Kitty Morgan and textile artist Becky Edmunds. The emerging material provided the foundation for our film Water Lily.