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Bondagers & The Straw Chair
Two plays of haunting lyricism by one of Scotland's most dynamic playwrights
Bondagers, winner of the LWT Plays on Stage Award 1990, draws out the shadowy figures of women exploited as cheap agricultural labour in the Border country of the last century, evoking the rich sounds of a way of life, lived in servace to the gentry. In The Straw Chair, set in the first half of the eighteenth century (1735-40), seventeen-year-old Isabel and her minister husband arrive from Edinburgh on the remote island of Hirta (St Kilda). Their encounter with the island's isolated inhabitants, and especially the outspoken and fearless Rachel of Grange, will change their lives for ever.
Bondagers: "One of the finest plays of the modern Scottish theatre.. It is raw an drough, warm and tender, funny enough to make your heart dance and movine enough to steal it away… This is a play that everyone should see." (Scotland on Sunday)
The Straw Chair: "A beguiling combination of things, starting with the incredible story of Lady Grange, banished by her husband to the remoteness of St Kilda. Hung around this framework is an evocation, as light and sharp as spindrift, of the strange life on the island." (Scotland on Sunday)
Bondagers, winner of the LWT Plays on Stage Award 1990, draws out the shadowy figures of women exploited as cheap agricultural labour in the Border country of the last century, evoking the rich sounds of a way of life, lived in servace to the gentry. In The Straw Chair, set in the first half of the eighteenth century (1735-40), seventeen-year-old Isabel and her minister husband arrive from Edinburgh on the remote island of Hirta (St Kilda). Their encounter with the island's isolated inhabitants, and especially the outspoken and fearless Rachel of Grange, will change their lives for ever.
Bondagers: "One of the finest plays of the modern Scottish theatre.. It is raw an drough, warm and tender, funny enough to make your heart dance and movine enough to steal it away… This is a play that everyone should see." (Scotland on Sunday)
The Straw Chair: "A beguiling combination of things, starting with the incredible story of Lady Grange, banished by her husband to the remoteness of St Kilda. Hung around this framework is an evocation, as light and sharp as spindrift, of the strange life on the island." (Scotland on Sunday)
164 pages, Paperback
First published May 25, 1997
About the author
Sue Glover
24 booksSue Glover was born in Edinburgh and lives in the east Neuk of Fife. She writes for radio, television and theatre, as well as Sacred Hearts, her theatre work includes The Bubble Boy, The Straw Chair, Bondagers, The Seal Wife, Artist Unknown, and Shetland Saga. The Traverse Theatre revived its production of Bondagers three times, and took it to London and Canada. Several of her plays have been translated and produced in Europe and the United States.
Her television work includes Homefront, The Bubble Boy, The Spaver Connection, Dear Life, Mrs Miller and Madame Montand, and work for Take the High Road and Strathblair. Radio work includes adaptations as well as original work, the most recent is the adaptation of Tove Jansson's Fair Play.
Her television work includes Homefront, The Bubble Boy, The Spaver Connection, Dear Life, Mrs Miller and Madame Montand, and work for Take the High Road and Strathblair. Radio work includes adaptations as well as original work, the most recent is the adaptation of Tove Jansson's Fair Play.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 25, 2014
My sense is that Bondagers is the more famous of these two plays, but I actually enjoyed The Straw Chair more. I think I find the language of TSC more accessible as a reader (though if I someday get to see Bondagers performed it might be a different story) because it is less rooted in Scots--although TSC uses Gaelic phrases (which are translated into English), the main dialogue is close to the King's English. Bondagers, on the other hand, is written at least partly in Scots, which is similar to English but definitely distinct, so as a reader who doesn't know Scots very well I feel like I missed a lot of the play's complexity.
Both of these plays deal with feminist themes, including the isolation, exploitation, and view of women as disposable. Bondagers presents a traditional labor system in the Border region, in which farm hands who wanted a job working on an estate needed to bring a female laborer (called a bondager) with them, and unmarried women would hire themselves out as bondagers in what the modern American reader might equate with an antebellum slave market. While in this service the women were open to sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as being paid less than their male counterparts, and having no realistic chance of improving their social position or their role in the mode of production. And Ellen, the character who marries the farm owner and so moves up in the world occupies and uncomfortable liminal position--she is no longer a bondager, but she is also not really a lady, she is caught between the two positions without being able to fully occupy either.
TSC follows Isabel, the wife of the new missionary sent to Hirta island off the highland coast. Over the course of the play she attempts to develop an emotional connection with her husband, but it is a struggle at every step because they are in conflict over Rachel, a lady who has fallen into disgrace and now remains as a kind of exile/prisoner on the island. Isabel feels sympathy for Rachel, who tells of having been kidnapped by her cold, cheating, Jacobite husband. Aneas--the minister--rejects Rachel because she is an alcoholic, is snobbishly superior despite dressing in filthy rags, swears and blasphemes, makes sexual comments and jokes, and is a generally unpleasant person. The play follows Isabel as she establishes a community with the women on Hirta, with Rachel, and as she attempts to establish an emotionally and sexually fulfilling relationship with her husband.
Both of these plays deal with feminist themes, including the isolation, exploitation, and view of women as disposable. Bondagers presents a traditional labor system in the Border region, in which farm hands who wanted a job working on an estate needed to bring a female laborer (called a bondager) with them, and unmarried women would hire themselves out as bondagers in what the modern American reader might equate with an antebellum slave market. While in this service the women were open to sexual abuse and exploitation, as well as being paid less than their male counterparts, and having no realistic chance of improving their social position or their role in the mode of production. And Ellen, the character who marries the farm owner and so moves up in the world occupies and uncomfortable liminal position--she is no longer a bondager, but she is also not really a lady, she is caught between the two positions without being able to fully occupy either.
TSC follows Isabel, the wife of the new missionary sent to Hirta island off the highland coast. Over the course of the play she attempts to develop an emotional connection with her husband, but it is a struggle at every step because they are in conflict over Rachel, a lady who has fallen into disgrace and now remains as a kind of exile/prisoner on the island. Isabel feels sympathy for Rachel, who tells of having been kidnapped by her cold, cheating, Jacobite husband. Aneas--the minister--rejects Rachel because she is an alcoholic, is snobbishly superior despite dressing in filthy rags, swears and blasphemes, makes sexual comments and jokes, and is a generally unpleasant person. The play follows Isabel as she establishes a community with the women on Hirta, with Rachel, and as she attempts to establish an emotionally and sexually fulfilling relationship with her husband.
December 7, 2008
One of my favourite contemporary Scottish plays, and what fantastic characters it contains, with some fascinating scenes and monologues.
I really enjoyed it a lot.
I really enjoyed it a lot.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews