The Welkin – Helpless Among Peers
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same).
England 1759. Sally Poppy (Haley Wong) returns home to her husband after a year’s unexplained absence. It’s pitch black but for a candle. (Stacey Derosier- excellent lighting.) Where the #@!* have you been?!… Lift your skirts and put your hands against the wall!” her husband, Frederick (Danny Wolohan) commands. Light reveals the young woman is naked and covered in blood. There’s a millisecond of concern. Sally has returned only to secure money enough for a midwife (the incipient child is not his). She sounds deranged.
(Front row, left to right) Haley Wong (Sally Poppy), Paige Gilbert (Hannah Rusted), Susannah Perkins(Mary Middleton); (2nd row) Simone Recasner (Peg Carter), Ann Harada (Judith Brewer), (3rd row) Jennifer Nikki Kidwell (Ann Lavender), Tilly Botsford (Kitty Givens); (standing) Hannah Cabell (Sarah Hollis), Mary McCann (Charlotte Cary)
Charged for killing the child of local gentry (wait-what?!) with an accomplice/lover already hanged, she pleads pregnancy. Laws in Britain at the time protected expectant mothers from the death penalty. As she isn’t yet showing, women who have come to the trial out of prurient interest or curiosity are conscripted to determine whether Sally’s with child. There were no distaff representatives on British juries until 1920. Those sealing the prisoner’s fate merely turn her over to men who run the courts.
A twelfth participant is needed. Local midwife Elizabeth Luke (Sandra Oh) is pressured into participating by bailiff Mr. Coombes (Glenn Fitzgerald, dependably authentic), with whom she’s having an affair. (The piece is full of varied climates of sex.) Smart, skilled and outspoken, that she brought Sally into the world is as much a reason to go as sensing miscarriage of justice.
(Left to right) Ann Harada, Dale Soules(Sarah Smith), Sandra Oh (Lizzy Luke), Haley Wong (Sally Poppy), (Haley Wong)
The midwife is fair. “She’s a nasty, stupid, wicked, wench, and I need to save her life,” she grumbles, referring to the accused. Having been blamed for every local infant death, however, “Nobody blames God,” Elizabeth is not anxious to deal with these women on anything but a one to one basis.
Thumping, smacking, banging, churning sounds rise like rap rhythms or industry. A wonderful conceit. Eleven women (in noisy activity) identify themselves one by one, swearing on a Bible. We get a sense of different marriages and environments, often with humor. Sarah Hollis (Hannah Cabell, who’s very fine in Act II) is mute, her acquiescence translated.
The women are locked in a basement room without heat, food, or water until a unanimous decision is reached. Coombes attends but must not speak. Elizabeth joins last. Bound and filthy, Sally is brought to them for examination. She’s foul mouthed, defiant, and ranting – odd under the circumstances. Though having not bled in months, swearing she sometimes emits milk, exoneration looks implausible.
Haley Wong (Sally Poppy), Dale Soules(Sarah Smith), Susannah Perkins(Mary Middleton)
Unlike the similar theatrical situation depicted in Twelve Angry Men, all the women but visiting Charlotte Carey (Mary McCann), made forewoman because she’s genteel, know one another. Charlotte deems Sally an “animal” before discussion even begins. Emma Jenkins (Nadine Malouf), formerly from London, is the only experienced “juror” (a misuse of the word). She’s convinced Sally stole from her and has also made up her mind.
Gossip is as prevalent as theories. Except for Helen (Emily Cass McDonnell) who’s barren, everyone has a large family and is ostensibly knowledgeable about pregnancy. Sarah Smith (the splendid Dale Soules) has had 21 children by three men. The group pelts Sally with questions about how she feels, physically touch her, and finally test for lactation. Milk later emerges unexpectedly, but is dismissed as evidence due to extenuating (polluting) circumstances. Elizabeth grows increasingly desperate.
Conversation is terrific, illuminating, specific to personality and era. The women have children and chores waiting. Most want to get the duty over with to an extent that ignores a human life is at stake. Successive votes reap different outcomes. Motivations are revealed. Elizabeth is Sally’s passionate advocate for both obvious and, at first, undisclosed reasons. The girl is ungrateful, even mean until frantic for extenuating circumstances.
(Center) Sandra Oh (Lizzy Luke); (around table) Mary McCann (Charlotte Cary), Glenn Fitzgerald (Mr. Coombes), Ann Harada (Judith Brewer), Dale Soules(Sarah Smith), Jennifer Nikki Kidwell (Ann Lavender), Simone Recasner (Peg Carter), Nadine Malouf (Emma Jenkins), Susannah Perkins(Mary Middleton); (standing) Emily Cass McDonnell (Helen Ludlow), Paige Gilbert (Hannah Rusted)
Spoiler alert: There are two contemporary interjections I found unfathomable. First Emma quietly sings “I was kissing Valentino” (a Prince lyric), then the entire company erupts with the Bangles’ “Manic Monday.” The Welkin is extremely relevant to women’s current struggle to maintain control over our own lives and bodies. Such obvious modernity is not only unnecessary and jarring but somewhat leavens the effect of a shocking outcome.
Lucy Kirkwood offers a cornucopia of women familiar in their unappreciated lots and approaches to life despite living centuries in the past. The playwright does so with spirit and originality, credibly interweaving humor with the horror of human behavior. The play is compelling and entertaining.
Director Sarah Benson is skilled with both pacing and physical movement. Each woman has stage business, personal affectations and clear relationships. Company focus is admirable. Humor unfailingly lands without telegraphing. Some events arrive unabashedly painful. Early rhythmic staging is inspired. Later, watch for Coombes’ surprising tears.
Sandra Oh’s Elizabeth is entirely believable- whip sharp, armored, angry, compassionate- consistently superb. As Sally Poppy, Haley Wong displays convincing physicality, parentheses of raving, and, at last, sympathetic fatalism- only occasionally going over the top. The Company is symbiotic and skilled.
Yet another evocative scenic design by dots, the dank room with an enormous fireplace, a heavy door one has to duck to get through, and one tiny window makes us feel as trapped as the women.
Layered costumes by Kaye Voyce are marvelous; each different, all depicting the period, class, and lot of women who spend their days in often physical chores and childcare.
Sound (paramount in this piece) by Palmer Hefferan is excellent as are special effects by Jeremy Chernick (no projections) and fight direction by Sean Griffin and Gerardo Rodriguez
Welkin means the sky; the vault of heaven. Lucy Kirkwood uses Haley’s Comet as a tenuous connection. In 1705, Edmund Halley employed Sir Isaac Newton’s theories to recognize and predict the appearance of the only comet consistently visible to the naked eye from earth every 75–79 years. Its imminent appearance is cited in the play as possible excuse for aberrant behavior; actual arrival serves as dramatic punctuation. Kirkwood may also mean to indicate the expanse of women’s difficult lot.
Photos by Ahron R. Foster
Opening: (left to right) Dale Soules(Sarah Smith), Emily Cass McDonnell (Helen Ludlow), Sandra Oh (Lizzy Luke), Jennifer Nikki Kidwell (Ann Lavender), Tilly Botsford (Kitty Givens), (kneeling) Susannah Perkins(Mary Middleton), Haley Wong (Sally Poppy), Paige Gilbert (Hannah Rusted), Simone Recasner (Peg Carter), Nadine Malouf (Emma Jenkins)
Atlantic Theater Company presents
The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood
Directed by Sarah Benson
Through June 30, 2024
Linda Gross Theater
336 West 20th Street
