1 woman accused. 12 women decide.

It's 1759 and in the English countryside, a young woman faces a death sentence for a gruesome crime. Desperate to avoid execution, she claims to be pregnant. This assertion leads to an extraordinary gathering of twelve women, pulled from their daily lives and tasked with deciding her fate. In a world dominated by men, this rare moment of female authority is both disruptive and empowering.

From the author of Olivier Award winning play Chimerica, Lucy Kirkwood's The Welkin is a thrilling and witty exploration of power, social responsibility and the burden of women in a patriarchal society.

"A somber yet witty play set in 18th-century England ... a clever perversion of a courtroom drama" New York Times

"a delicious blend of eighteenth-century satire, twentieth-century morality play and fizzy postmodern inventiveness" Times Literary Supplement