Hush Now
Hush Now is an ambitious countrywide series of digital and live performances that give voice to the unmarried mothers who were stigmatised and hidden away in Mother & Baby Homes.
About the work
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.
During a Feral workshop in 2018, a participant made reference to The Mother and Baby Homes that were in Hereford in the 19th and 20th centuries. As a place-making creative who responds to site, Estelle knew in that moment that a new project was born.
Piloted as a theatrical song cycle in 2019, Hush Now has become Feral’s most enduring project, growing and developing in content and model as we roll it to give voice to the women who were silenced and hidden away in Homes throughout the country and beyond.
“I cried all the way through. I knew I would. It’s stunning.”
How we made it
In 2019 Feral Productions collaborated with Ledbury poet Sara-Jane Arbury who turned archival research into verse.
Her verses were then adapted by Estelle to lay the ground for composer Olivia Preye to set them to music. Thereafter they were performed as a theatrical song cycle in a series of promenade performances across nine different locations within Hereford Cathedral School, the site of the first Herefordshire Home.
In 2020 we linked the songs together to create a piece of stage-based digital theatre which was screened during lockdown and viewed remotely by hundreds of audience members. Subsequently each piece was filmed on location elsewhere in rural Herefordshire, resulting in a diverse set of nine films that are deeply site-responsive and come from a place of authenticity.
Hear Sara-Jane Arbury and Estelle van Warmelo, as they discuss this secret history and the creative processes behind the poetry, songs and performance.
Creative Hub community
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.
“Loved it. Made me cry at the end.
So beautiful.”
Performances
At Hereford Cathedral School 2019
On our YouTube channel thereafter
Crew
Creative Direction/Adaptation – Estelle van Warmelo
Movement Direction – Rebecca Meltzer
Cinematography — Kie Cummings
Production Design — Carl Davies
Music – Olivia Preye and Kitty Morgan
Original poems by Sara-Jane Arbury
Production Management — Phil Glenny/Becky Brown
Stage Management - Mina Nakamura
Production Photography — Gabriella Karney
Cast
Jenny-May While, Alison Allan, Melanie Denning, Kate Pothecary, Katy Dalton, Madeleine MacMahon, Eleanor Dean, Ellen Dorsett, Emily Evans, Charlotte Bryon, Sophie Griffiths-Rose, Rebecca Cook
“A very thoughtful and heart-breaking account of the terrible treatment casually dealt out to unmarried mothers...”