Power of Invention

Lockdown and the closure of Birmingham museums meant a nine month postponement for this site-specific production about Matthew Boulton’s ground-breaking Lunar Society. We reconfigured the show as an outdoor production in the gardens of Soho House in Birmingham, to make it covid secure.  Click ‘continue reading’ or scroll down for older posts about the show.

Too many crumbs

When we started discussing Power of Invention, I knew I wanted to write a female character but as the Lunar Society didn’t allow women to join, or even take part in their meetings, I knew it was probably going to be a tough call. I then read about 18th century scientist LADY CATHERINE WRIGHT who’d

The wheel of history

In 1804, Yorkshireman JOSEPH PRIESTLEY died in Northumberland… Pennsylvania. Of moving to the US, he wrote, “it is now only that I can say I see nothing to fear from the hand of power, the government under which I live being for the first time truly favourable to me.” An unsurprising comment given that he

BOLDtext heads to Soho House

On Friday 30th,  Saturday 31st July and Saturday 7th August 2021, BOLDtext Playwrights’ new site-specific & science-specific show, Power of Invention, will be performed at Soho House, the home of Birmingham’s Lunar Society. The show will explore the ground-breaking scientific advances inspired during the society’s full-moon meetings towards the end of the 18th century.   Centred