On 13 March we will be welcoming our first audience into Bedlam Theatre, the home of the Edinburgh student theatre scene, for ‘Mother Clap’s Molly House’ by Mark Ravenhill. Staging this play in a space which has provided a home for hundreds of productions throughout the years feels like a celebration of the space and a homage to the community of theatre makers and artists from the EUTC.
‘Mother Clap’ premiered at the National Theatre in 2001 as an exploration and celebration of the 18th Century queer subculture of the Molly houses which provided a safe space for queer people to gather, socialise and wear dresses in a sexually liberated environment in which sodomy laws threatened the lives of those who were part of this subculture. The Molly House subculture has been a fascinating world to explore and live in during the rehearsal process of this show, and the play’s temporal jump from 1726 to 2001 in the second act has led to discussions reflecting on the connections between this 18th subculture and the contemporary queer scene.
When proposing to revive this play, my main motivation came from seeing the gradual closure of many queer spaces in Edinburgh, London and other cities across the country. I hope audiences will fall in love with our mollies as much as we have during the rehearsal process, and also leave the theatre with questions about what it means to have a queer space made for, and by, queer people in today’s allegedly liberated society where we still have a long way to go before we are fully free to express ourselves.
‘Mother Clap’s Molly House’ runs from the 13th-16th March (7:30pm) at Bedlam Theatre, with a post-show Q&A discussion after the performance on the 14th. We look forward to welcoming you to the Molly house soon!
Image by Andrew Perry provided via Bedlam Theatre Press Release