 Her
grave in Calabar is still visited, almost 100 years after her death, by
dignitaries and royalty from around the world. She is the only woman to
appear on a Scottish bank note. She is arguably the world's most famous
female missionary. And yet the average Scot knows little of Mary Slessor,
the Dundee mill girl who devoted her life to living and working amongst
the most primitive of peoples in West Africa. She remains Scotland's
forgotten heroine.
Mother
of All the Peoples will
hopefully go someway to remedying that situation. Based on the life of
the Aberdeen born missionary, the remarkable story of Mary's journey
from the slums and mills of Dundee, living in fear of a drunken and
violent father, through her work in the Dundee Mission Halls to her
years in the deepest jungles of Calabar is told with a mixture of humour
and pathos.
Mother
of All the Peoples
has been written by Mike Gibb and features a score of ten new songs
provided by Mike Gibb and a wonderful local musician and composer called
Mairi Paton, who also acted as the show's musical director.
The
show premiered at the Lemon Tree from 20 February 2003 with a cast of
three of Northern Scotland's finest female actors – Jill Hay, Yvonne
Morton and Sarah Alexander. It sold out its limited run four weeks
prior to opening night making it the fastest selling show in the
Theatre's history and enjoyed tremendous audience acclaim.
The
show was featured on Radio Scotland's Arts Programme and is the subject
of a documentary, intended for the US and Canadian cable networks, made
by Tartan TV.
It
was brought to the stage thanks to the financial support of the Scottish
Arts Council and Aberdeen City Council and the sponsorship of
TotalFinaElf Exploration. A percentage of all ticket receipts and CD
sales was donated to Christian Aid to help with their work in Africa.
Due
to the success of the inaugural production the show is being reprised
with the same three talented actors at the much larger Aberdeen Arts
Centre from 27 to 29 November 2003. Due to a demand for tickets the box
office opened in June, more than six months in advance of opening night,
and looks certain to break all box office records for the long
established venue.
A
separate production with a cast of four Tayside female actors (Lynn
Binnie, Julia Walker, Tricia Stewart and Aileen Air) is to open at the
Gardyne Theatre in Dundee on 18 March 2004 under the control of director
John Nimmo.All profits from this production will go directly to the Mary
Slessor Foundation to help with their continuing work in the Calabar
region of Nigeria. For more information on the Foundation go to info@maryslessor.org
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