One of the 1914 anniversaries that might get overlooked this year is the centenary of the British government’s decision to release all the suffragette prisoners on amnesty. Four years later, as this compelling one-woman musical drama tells us, eight-and-a-half million women gained the vote: not all of them, as Ella Harris’ engaging character Annie Wilde pointedly remarks by the end of Wrong ‘Un. But it was a start.
Wrong ‘Un charts the story of that journey – from Annie Wilde trying (and failing) to play football with the boys in school, to her time as Lancashire mill-girl campaigning for equal pay. We then see her fully-fledged direct action as a suffragette in London. Harris captures the imagination for an hour simply because she is a great storyteller – inhabiting a distinct range of characters from a schoolteacher to a politician while making Wilde herself warm, likable and subversive without ever resorting to hectoring.
The songs in this musical drama are little folky snapshots rather than fully-fledged epics – but in a way that suits the reflective, intimate feel of Wrong ‘Un. Wilde asks the audience to sing along to one tune which celebrates action against the authorities, and the fact that almost everyone does is proof that Whalley’s drama works. If there is a slight whiff of the school trip in the historical re-enactment, then the sly reference to Pussy Riot keeps Wrong ‘Un up-to-date. One hundred years on, the suffragette movement is still relevant.
