It is May 1945. On an Orkney naval base, news that peace is about to be declared has reached one of the women’s cabins. But while the “big war” may be ending, there are little wars ongoing between the bickering, distrustful Wrens – until one of their own finds herself in a predicament that forces an uneasy armistice in even those.
Annie McGravie’s script, being performed here in preview by Tiny Teapot Theatre in preparation for a run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, throws seven very different characters together in a confined space. Fireworks are inevitable, of course – but a successful play finds the original and unexpected, and truth be told we don’t get too much in the way of that here. What we do get, though, is the sense of cataclysmic change approaching – the prospect of encroaching peacetime being as daunting as the start of a war.
Continue reading “Wrens, Upstairs at the Gatehouse”
