This play was first performed on 24th January 1989 at the Young Vic Studio, London.

Ironmistress is a play set in Victorian Britain – yes, the time where the Angel in the House was at its peak! Martha Darby is a widow and has inherited her late husband’s ironworks. She struggles to be accepted by society as sole proprietor and Martha begins to look towards going against these models of Victorian patriarchy and industry and gaining a new sense of power.

Meanwhile, her daughter, Little Cog (and yes, Little Cog as in a small piece of a large system – extremely fitting, if you ask me!) is due to be married the next day – a child-like character who constantly questions her mother about men and what marriage is really like, yet Martha isn’t too open. To celebrate her ‘last day’ – which definitely makes her demise sound more like death (but then again, death and marriage are arguably VERY comparable!) – Little Cog and Martha play games and tell stories. These stories move from tales about rebellion and to returning to stories and echoes of biblical teachings about the traditional, maternal, and powerless figure of a woman.  

She is not unhappy.

She’s his wife.

She’s just being sensible.

Martha, Ironmistress

Intertwined in this extremely poetic play, Little Cog frequently inhibits the fantasy character of Shanny Pinns, a woman who refused to marry and went on to become a highwaywoman-kind-of-figure. It seems that some part of Little Cog (and somewhat Martha) wants to be this figure. Little Cog is already intuitive and ask questions, and throughout the piece, she keeps returning to Shanny Pinns – a fantasy role which finally allows her to rebel, blaspheme and go against all the Christian teaching that structure the Darby household. I think Little Cog secretly idealised her – she may not know it, it may be hidden deep within her subconscious and she doesn’t want to tell her mother, but there is definitely something interesting about this reoccurring, feminist alter ego.

Little Cog’s naivety stands out almost uncomfortably in this play – perhaps linking to just how uneducated and unaware of society women actually were during the Victorian Era. She acts like a child yet is old enough to marry. She has no awareness about what marriage entails and her recalling of her wedding night is uncomfortable for the audience, and in today’s world would definitely be a consent issue! I kept wondering why Martha didn’t inform her better. Perhaps, that was just the norm of society? Maybe Martha doesn’t want Little Cog to understand the pain and comfortability of the real world and her lack of knowledge helps her live as painlessly as possible.

One day, thinking this, she looked down.

There at her feet was a wing.

She took it apart.

Cleaned the bones

And fitted it back together

Like a jigsaw.

She forgot about the soldier and his iron things.

She held up the wing to the sun

To see the cleverness in it.

And she said to herself

One day I’d like to build a metal bird machine

That flies in the sky

And gives people lifts in it.

Lights down

Little Cog exits.

Little Cog/Shanny Pinns, Ironmistress

This was the first April De Angelis play that I had read, and after listening to her on the Royal Court Podcast, I knew that Ironmistress would include a strong Feminist voice – and damn, it did not disappoint! This piece explores of the internal and external conflict of whether to break from social norms, and if this is safe or viable in terms of economics and the ability to survive. De Angelis is renowned for her feminist dramaturgy, and I can definitely see the influences of Caryl Churchill and protofeminism in her work. She is also known for capturing historical pasts and adaptations, and De Angelis really captures the bleakness of Victorian through the play’s unique verse and historical references to ‘fallen’ women.

RATING: 8/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️