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Darwin’s Cleaner

Written and directed by Saskia Wenigk-Wood.

 
From the Fringe Review: “This is quietly groundbreaking work with real potential. Olivia Post is both enormously affecting as Henrietta ‘Hen’ Brown and a shapeshifting narrator. Exciting Work.”

For this thought provoking play we invented a woman from the 19thcentury – a servant, who would not have been documented at all except for the extraordinary circumstances into which she was born. In February 1809 the cook has a daughter – Hen, but on the same day in the same house is born a boy: the extraordinary Charles Darwin! Their lives become entwined. We meet Hen when she has had enough of the mess and the carcasses, the flesh eating plants and the pinned butterflies. A woman can only put up with so much, and life has thrown a lot at our resilient and loving Henrietta Brown. Watch Hen dishing the dirt on the Darwins and finding her own way as the world for Victorian women begins to change.

Some historical facts: Charles Darwin was born on February 12th 1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, the fifth of six children to a Unitarian family – his father was a doctor. Darwin’s mother Susannah, née Wedgwood, died when he was only 13 years old. As a youngster Darwin did not enjoy studying and preferred hunting and shooting, spending time with his uncle Josiah Wedgwood and family. Still, he studied medicine, theology and natural sciences in Edinburgh and Cambridge and eventually was recommended to travel on the ship The Beagle as a gentleman naturalist. This famous journey took him around the world from 1831-1836. Upon his return Darwin moved to London and eventually married his cousin Emma. The two of them had 10 children, seven of whom lived into adulthood, and from 1842 lived in Down House on the outskirts of London – now a Darwin museum and well worth a visit.

Henrietta (Hen) Brown, née Telford, was born on February 12th1809 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, on the same day as Charles Darwin. She was the daughter of the cook in the Darwin household at The Mount. Hen and Charles Darwin were both wet nursed by Hen’s mother as Mistress Darwin was unwell. As an adult, when Darwin moved to London, the then widowed Hen was sent along as his maid. Later she moved with him and his wife Emma to Down House, helping to look after the many children and making herself useful as Charles Darwin’s assistant.

Or did she? There is no trace of Henrietta Brown in the history books – she is simply a figment of our imagination. A brilliant woman, born at a time when her fate was to be a maid, she is only now documented in our play.

Approximately 80 minutes – no interval.

Touring Professional-SwanWing Productions

 

 

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