Kate Mosse brings warrior queens and quiet revolutionaries to The New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth

Inspired by her best-selling book of the same name, the tour comes to New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth tomorrow.

A fabulous evening of entertainment – music, images and storytelling – the show will see the Chichester-based writer celebrate the lives of extraordinary, brilliant, trail-blazing and heroic women from throughout history whose names deserve to be better known.

It’s also part detective story into her own, sometimes heart-breaking, family history, as she shares how she tracked down her own long-forgotten relative, Lily Watson, in whose literary shadow she is walking.

No stranger to live book events, this is the first time though, that she has turned one of her books into a full-blown show.

‘I’m in my 60s now, and I like to have new challenges,’ says Kate. You’ve got to be brave, haven’t you? I love being a writer, but you can’t just think, “I’ll keep doing the thing that I’ve always done.” You’ve got to push yourself and keep trying.

‘I’ve really enjoyed book events in the past. I had been really disappointed during lockdown not to be out and about meeting readers. WQQR, the book, is a celebration of nearly 1,000 incredible women from all periods of history and all corners of the globe. The tour will be the same. It was my lockdown project, researching all these amazing women – and turning detective for my own family history too - and I wouldn’t have had time to do it otherwise. And then I thought, “I would just really enjoy sharing these stories with bigger audiences”.’

For those fearing it will be a show full of angry feminists and man-bashing, Kate says she wants to create an informative, inclusive night out: ‘It’s for everybody. It’s for girls and boys, men and women, dads and their daughters, mums and their sons, friends and neighbours.

‘There will be music, props, a proper set, pictures – and me! I’ve never done anything like this before so, of course, I’m a little daunted. But I am going to give it my best shot. During the course of the show, as well as plenty fun facts and "did-you-knows”, I’ll tell the life stories of some of the most interesting, most inspiring, most astonishing women from the book – from Joan of Arc and Mary Seacole to Florence Nightingale and Agatha Christie, from the Mongolian princess Khutlan to Rosa Parks, from the notorious 18th century pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Reid to Beatrix Potter and the legendary English footballer, Lily Parr.

‘Some of the stories are tragic, some are hilarious, and some make you gasp out loud because you can’t quite believe it. My choices are inspired both by stories that are the most fun to share, at the same time as trying to give a flavour of all the different types of characters from in the book. But I want people to come out of the theatre just going: “Oh my God, I never knew that!”’

And she also makes a very important point about how she intends to get the show’s message across.

‘I believe in trying to change the world for the better. Often, I think it’s easier to change hearts and minds by telling positive stories rather than by being angry. For some people, of course, anger is very important and fuels their activism: sexism, racism, misogyny, religious intolerance, enslavement, war, a lack of equality or rights, quite rightly anger is what gives people the power to act. It’s what drives them forward. But, for this theatre show, what I want is a whole theatre full of people gasping, turning to each other and saying, “Oh, I never knew that!” and for them to leave feeling uplifted.’

Kate describes the show as ‘a love letter to history.’

‘That’s why this is a show for anybody who loves history or is interested in family history – but it also asks the question: what is history? Who makes it? Who gets to decide what matters? Why do some people end up in the history books and others don’t? I want to unravel the way that history gets written.

‘Another theme is asking what, if anything, links all of these women? Are there special characteristics that come up time and again, regardless of place or time or the work a woman is doing? And I want the audience to feel that they are part of that conversation with me. Finally, it’s a celebration. I want people to feel inspired, empowered and delighted to have spent the evening in the company of so many trailblazers from the past.’

While this is her first headlining show, Kate is no stranger to the stage.

‘Although this is the first time I’ve done a one woman show as a performer, I often compere or host big events at theatres and literary events, and I enjoying interviewing writers, actors, directors and performers. I wrote my first full-length play last year, an adaptation of one of my own novels called The Taxidermist’s Daughter.

‘It was an honour that it opened the 60th anniversary season at Chichester Festival Theatre. My son Felix is in musical theatre, too, and so I have watched him preparing – his roles include Marius in Les Misérables, Alex in Aspects of Love and Brad in Rocky Horror. Also, my husband teaches playwriting and is a playwright. So, I’ve always spent a lot of time in and around the theatre. I’ve just never been the main event before!’

And her connection to the theatre goes back to her childhood.

‘ I was taken to the theatre by my parents from a very young age. One time in particular, when I was six, I remember walking up into the auditorium of Chichester Festival Theatre, holding their hands, in my best party dress, as you did in those days, wearing white knee-length socks and Mary Jane shoes. Sitting in the auditorium that first time, as the lights went down, I remember that moment and thinking: “Oh, now I understand. This is where magic happens.”

‘And I’ve never lost that feeling – whether I’m backstage about to go on to interview somebody, or when it was my own play, sitting in the audience as the lights went down. I still feel that flutter of expectation that anything could happen. I think that’s what I’ll feel when I’m backstage in the wings at my show. “All right, here we go, the lights have gone down. And this is where the magic happens.”

‘But this time, it’s going to be up to me to deliver it. Even as a punter, If I have a free evening, I go to the theatre. I’m still sold on live events. It’s not the same for me watching a boxset or a film or something when all the creative decisions have already been made.’

She’s also looking to getting out on the road and seeing her fans – the 31-date tour takes her all over England.

‘I can’t wait to see the faces of the audience. When I write a book, I put it out there and the reader takes it from my hands, and then the book’s completed. It’s the same with the theatre tour. The show only exists when the audience is in the auditorium. Otherwise, it’s just me and the wonderful stage manager and the sound and lighting guys, talking into silence. I love the idea that a theatre show will be different every night because the people who are there are different every night.

‘I really love the UK. That sounds really old fashioned, and I don’t mean it in a creepy, weird flag-waving kind of a way, but rather than we have a wonderful country. I’m hugely looking forward to travelling around Britain, going to places I don’t know and seeing cities and towns that I might have heard of, but never visited. Everywhere I go, I hope I will have time to go out and about. If I possibly can, I will seek out a detective story or a novel set in that town because I think that’s how you quite often get under the skin of a place.’

The show will features an element of audience participation – she will be asking the audience, as they leave, to nominate the one woman from history – and it can be anyone they want – they would have put in the book.

‘That way, together the audience and I will be building a massive library of women, many more even than the thousand I mention in my book. I’m hoping many of these will be important women locally who I won’t have heard of.’

Kate Mosse is at New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth, tomorrow, 7.30pm. Tickets £30. Go to newtheatreroyal.com.

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