MUTTON is a new dark comedy from Leeds-based theatre company Brave Words, exploring the life and times of Mary Bateman, aka the Yorkshire Witch, and how the desperation of ordinary folk in the early 1800s has parallels with our world today. MUTTON is written by Chris Singleton, artistic director of Brave Words. Here, Chris explains the inspiration behind the play, which comes to Hawksworth Village Hall, Leeds, on Nov 19, and St John’s Parish Hall, Staincross, Barnsley, on Nov 28…

Where did the idea for MUTTON come from?

I was writer in residence at Leeds Central Library in 2019 and started doing some digging into the wrongdoing and mischief that had occurred in Leeds over the centuries and that’s when I came across Mary Bateman’s story. I immediately thought it would make a cracking play in a kind of League of Gentlemen-esque, Fleabag kind of style, where the female lead talks directly to the audience. I started writing a play in 2023 and two years later we got some funding to make it.

Who was Mary Bateman and what do we know about her?

Mary was a woman living in poverty, like a lot of people, in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. She grew up in North Yorkshire and got a bit of a reputation as a thief and wrongdoer from a very early age. By the time she was five, she was described as ‘knavish’ and ‘vicious’ and this reputation followed her around. She moved to Leeds and continued her career of crime, probably as a way to survive but also as a compulsion. Amongst her crimes – and this is where the title of the play comes from – she intercepted a butcher’s boy on his delivery round and demanded a leg of lamb saying the Lord wanted it and snatched it from him and took it home for her tea.

MUTTON

How did Mary become known as the Yorkshire Witch?

She was a fortune teller and sold charms under a multitude of aliases, but her biggest con was what became known as the ‘Prophet hen of Leeds.’ She wrote ‘Christ is coming’ on a load of eggs using either vinegar or acid, hilariously misspelling Christ, writing it without the ‘h’. There are various accounts, but it seems she convinced some people that her hen was laying these holy eggs and charged people a penny a go to see them. She became a bit of a local celebrity through her ‘holy hen’ and prophesying the end of the world. However, she became increasingly malicious and started poisoning people to keep them under her control, convincing them they needed her healing skills. Mary eventually poisoned the wrong person and was caught. She was imprisoned in York and later hanged in front of what was believed to be a record crowd of between 5,000 and 10,000 people. It was reported that some had walked all the way from Leeds to see the hanging, either because they had been her victims or wanted to see if the Yorkshire Witch had one final spell that would help her escape the gallows, which, of course, she didn’t.

Why did you want to tell her story on stage?

Back in the early 1800s a lot of people were living in poverty, the Industrial Revolution was underway and there was fear of new technology in the mills and factories and people were desperate for anything that might make their lives a little bit better. That’s why Mary was successful, people wanted to believe in something. As I was writing the play I kept thinking about the similarities with today. People are struggling, they’re worried about new technology in the form of AI and being conned by false prophets who claim they have the answers.

Also, Mary herself was a woman who grew up with no agency over her life and took agency by pretending to have magic powers, and we wanted to explore the idea of a woman living in what was a very patriarchal society. We’re not trying to say she wasn’t a villain, because she was, but I wanted to explore the reasons that might lead someone to do the audacious things she did.

Can you talk a bit about the play itself?

The play opens on the gallows moments before Mary is hanged and it ends on the gallows. In between is Mary telling a version of her story to the audience, alongside a collection of characters she conned during her life. It’s framed around the idea of who tells our stories and it also raises questions about can we trust the people who tell them?

MUTTON rehearsal credit Ant Robling

Why are we still interested in witchcraft and prophecies?

In the early 1800s, witchcraft wasn’t anywhere near as prevalent as it had been a couple of centuries earlier, but people were still fascinated by it and I don’t think that fascination has ever gone away. People are still interested in stories about magic and witchcraft.

How is Mary’s story relevant to a modern audience?

The idea of Mary claiming to be able to make people’s lives better when doing it for selfish reasons is something that chimes with our world today. Mary was a charismatic person who was able to convince people of things. She was a grifter, who was running from one con to the next, who would jump on a bandwagon if she thought it would benefit her. You only have to look at the world of politics to see this is still happening today.

What do you hope audiences take away from watching MUTTON?

We’re in a world now where so many high-profile voices are competing for people’s attention and some of those are doing it for selfish reasons. I hope the play makes people who come to see it think about why we believe in certain things and certain people, and not others. The play revolves around three main characters – Mary, Old Nan, who taught her about witchcraft, and Winnie, who Mary attempts to teach to be a witch – so as well as telling Mary’s story we’re also exploring the passing of experiences between generations, and whether you can stand up for what you believe in when somebody is trying to make you believe in something else.

Watch rehearsal footage here. 

To book tickets visit: Red Ladder Theatre Company or go to Mutton — BRAVE WORDS