THE WELKIN – REVIEW OF 2025 SOULPEPPER PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Welkin is a brilliant and complex play by Lucy Kirkwood. It premiered in London in 2020 and it deals with the fate of Sally Poppy (Bahia Watson), a young woman convicted of murdering a child in England in 1759. Her conviction takes place before the play begins and the only remaining issue is her sentence. Normally she would be hanged but she claims to be pregnant and if that is true, her death sentence would be commuted to transportation, that is, being shipped to America.

The question of her pregnancy is to be decided by a jury of twelve women from all walks of life. They meet in a dingy room adjacent to the courtroom in the presence of Mr. Coombes (Craig Lauzon), the bailiff. That is the central plot but Kirkwood adds subplots and twists not least of which is 1759, the year Halley’s Comet appeared, and a myriad of feminist issues and upheavals in eighteenth century England. The twelve jurors Sally and the bailiff are on stage throughout most of the play and Kirkwood provides some splendid opportunities for stunning acting. 

The play opens on an almost bare stage showing twelve women in 18^th century clothes by Costume Designer Michelle Tracey doing traditional housework like scrubbing floors, beating a rug, changing a baby, carrying pails of water on a yoke, making bread, mending clothes etc. These twelve women will form the jury that decides Sally’s fate.

In the cold and unpleasant jury room, there is a window and we hear the mob outside yelling and baying to witness the execution. Effective sound design by Thomas Ryder Payne. Sally is angry, uncooperative and bitchy. But there is another side to her as a tortured human being. The jurors have doubts about her claim to pregnancy and seem prepared to have her executed. All except Elizabeth Luke (Mayko Nguyen), a widowed midwife who is having an affair with the bailiff. Initially she does not want to join the jury and there are interesting facts in her background. I do not want to reveal everything for fear of spoiling some of the plot twists.

Elizabeth stands by her conviction that Sally is pregnant. One juror facing the other eleven should remind you of Twelve Angry Men, the play and the movie to which The Welkin is clearly related. The twelve jurors of this play represent twelve stories and Kirkwood relates a significant number of them. Most are interesting but I found it difficult to follow all of them. One issue in an otherwise stellar production was hearing all that was said and at times a failure to enunciate. In a play that raises so many feminist issues, the women decide that a man, a male doctor should be called to examine Sally. Dr. Willis (Cameron Lauris), a sympathetic gentleman, performs the examination. 

Bahia Watson (left) and the cast. Photo by Dahlia Katz

The leading characters are Sally and Elizabeth. Sally left  her husband and took up with her lover for four months. She returned to her husband covered in blood and told him that she was pregnant by her lover. Her lover was was convicted and executed for participating in the murder. She is convicted of brutally murdering a young girl and the play unravels her past as the jury tries to decide whether to send her to the gallows or to America. Kirkwood humanizes Sally by letting her describe her life as a servant dreaming of a lover who arrives on horseback, takes her to the fields and they make wild love. Bahia Watson gives a stellar performance.

Nguyen as Elizabeth does not want to become a juror (for good reason we find out later) but she is forced to do it and is appointed jury foreman. She is a strong character who withstands the disagreement of the eleven jurors and we follow her to a stunning but perhaps ambiguous end. A powerful and emotionally charged  performance.

Raquel Duffy as Sarah Hollis has a horrific scene describing giving birth in the woods. She is visited by a woman who helps her and Sarah thinks the woman is the She-Devil. Duffy’s description is one example of the several scenes that Kirkwood has written giving actors marvelous opportunities for superlative performances.

Mr. Coombes is a relatively minor character, but he erupts into a shocking bout of violence that is painful to watch.

The other jurors are Judith (Olunike Adeliyi), Peg (Ghazal Azarbad), Kitty (Nadine Bhabha), Mary (Brefny Caribou), Sarah Smith (Kyra Harper), Charlotte Cary (Fiona Highet), Emma (Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster), Hannah (Annie Lujan), Helen (Hallie Seline), and Ann (Natasha Mumba). Some are relatively minor roles but Fiona Highet gives a stunning performance as the would-be aristocratic and sarcastic Charlotte Cary (she is really a servant)  and other actors who have emotionally charged scenes.

The set design by Julie Fox is splendid,

Director Weyni Mengesha had to deal with sixteen actors on stage most of the time and she orchestrated their movements and emotional levels in a masterly fashion. It is not an easy play to direct and at times to follow. Kirkwood’s language is earthy, muscular and powerful. There are some old English expressions that you may not get but there is no harm done. The actors could speak in different English accents reflecting their social status and local origin in 1759 but that is probably all but impossible to achieve. If there was any attempt at that, I did not notice it.

This powerful drama is Mengesha’s last production as Artistic Director of Soulpepper. Hail and Farewell.   

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The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood in a production by Soulpepper, Crow’s Theatre and the Howland Company, opened on September 11 and continues until October 5, 2025, at The Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario. www.soulpepper.ca 

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press, Toronto