Panel Event: Early Modern Women Take to the Stage

News article published by Cordelia Beattie on 4 September 2026  deliverancesevents

On Thursday 15 October 2026 we are holding two performed readings followed by a panel who will answer questions. This event, entitled 'Early Modern Women Take to the Stage: Creative Responses to the Past', is supported by the Centre for Historical Reconstruction Research and DERIVATE.

Alice Thornton was a seventeenth-century gentlewoman who lived through the upheaval of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. She wrote at least four autobiographical books and one key theme is her many deliverances from death. Isabella Whitney was a sixteenth-century serving-woman whose poetry explores the vagaries of fortune and romantic love. She was also the first woman to publish secular poetry in print, in English. Inspired by their research, Professor Cordelia Beattie and Dr Anna-Rose Shack embarked on two separate theatre projects that sought to breathe new life into these early modern women and their writing.

This event will feature two short performances by the actors who portray Alice Thornton (Debbie Cannon) and Isabella Whitney (Atira Shack). This will be followed by a panel discussion with the organisers and writers about the process of dramatising early modern women for the contemporary stage, and the potential for creative work to take historical and literary research to new audiences, chaired by director Flavia D'Avila.

Location: G.03, Doorway 6, Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG. Time: 4.30-6pm