The Ballard of Maria Marten

At the heart of the story is Maria Marten, a spirited young woman from a small English village whose body is discovered buried in a barn a year after her disappearance. What follows is the retelling of the events leading up to her murder—this time, from Maria's perspective and the voices of the women around her. 'It's been a year since I died, and still nobody has found me.' Summer, 1827. In a red barn in Suffolk, Maria Marten awaits her lover. A year later, hidden in a grain sack under the floor of the barn, Maria's body is found, barely identifiable - and the manhunt begins.

On entering the theatre, one could not be anything but impressed with the staging based on part of the barn which was the main location of the story, adorned with appropriate props of the time, against an atmospheric background of music.  Maria begins to tell us the story of how she died, she and her friends take us back to when they were about 10 years old , their secret Hazard Club of solidarity and when she lost her mother. Maria played by Bethany Grainger was a superb actress with great expression, as she took us through the different stages of her life, giving birth to three children by different fathers, you could sense her pain and joy throughout.

There were also excellent performances from the rest of the cast; Melanie Jones as Ann, Maria’s step mother who finds Maria’s body in the barn and breaks down with such great sensitivity, Katie Brown as Phoebe the voice of reason seeking justice, Jessica Schneider as Sarah a pragmatic member of the group, Rebecca Wilbrooke, as Theresa, a constant, perhaps naïve girl and Jennifer Groome as Lucy a timid housemaid.

What was just as and maybe even more impressive, were those that with some quick costume changes doubled as the men in Maria’s life; Groome as Thomas Corder who fathered her first child that died, Wilbrooke as Peter Matthews who wants to marry Maria but was not allowed to by his father. Also impressive,  was the contrast provided by Schneider when presenting as Lady Cook ,who also tried to dissuade Maria from marrying Peter, Cook’s brother, for being below his station. We were certainly reminded how important this issue was at that time and whilst succumbing to this situation, Peter promised to send Maria £5 every three months. Maria’s third liaison, with William Corder, who we don’t actually meet, but is believed to be the murderer, started to go off the rails when he cashed one of the £5 cheques.

The play heavily emphasizes the companionship, struggles, and lives of the women. (e.g. getting up at 4am to do the washing and not finishing till midnight) But there were brighter highlights, including the Cherry Fayre, singing and dancing, which were quite joyous. The end scene when the barn was set alight by the girls to eliminate the memories, in a moving red smoky glow, was stupendous. This production under the director Tori Wishart was stunning in every respect and all involved on and off stage are to be congratulated.

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