Theatre in the Square Devised Production
by Rosie Fiore, Lynn Fidler, Danielle Flower, Jane Flower, Mary Groom, Edward Smith
 
Highgate Cemetery is a place full of stories – it is the burial place of the great and good, the not so good, the famous and the infamous. But when Danielle Flower first proposed that Theatre in the Square create a devised piece to be performed in the chapel, we were drawn to the less well known… the tale of ten girls whose final resting place remains unmarked.
Researchers Rowan Lennon and Sam Perrin first began looking into this small, unassuming gap between two graves on the Faraday path next to the wall adjoining Swain’ s Lane. There were ten women and girls in the grave, all at one time residents at an institution for so-called ‘fallen women’ known as Highgate Penitentiary, and then later as the Highgate House of Mercy. The home was in Park House, Hillcrest, just off Highgate’s North Hill.

Rowan and Sam’ s research identified the girls in the grave and began to build biographical pictures of them. Six of the ten were in their teens and one was just fourteen years old. Further research by Richard Kuhn and others gave more context to the story, and the writers of the play undertook further research. We also drew inspiration from an article in The English Woman’s Journal, published in March 1858, which describes a visit to the Penitentiary. This was allegedly written by the poet, Mary Howitt, who appears as a character in this play, alongside Christina Rossetti who was a volunteer there, and whose poetry may have been inspired by her experiences with the girls.

This Is Theatre in the Square’s third devised production, following the acclaimed All Change (2022) and Francis Bacon and The Ghost Chicken of Highgate (2024). We are indebted to Sam Perrin, Rowan Lennon, Nick Powell, Richard Kuhn, Jane Flower and all at Highgate Cemetery who have helped to make this project a reality.