This play tells the true story of the short life of Maria Marten, who was murdered by her lover William Corder in a red barn in the village of Polstead, Suffolk in England in 1827. Her body wasn’t found in the barn until a year later, when Corder was found guilty of murder in a well-publicised trial, and hanged.

Yet rather than focus on these gruesome events, the playwright Beth Flintoff tells a story of a spirited, passionate young woman whose choices brought her abuse and tragedy, and of the women in her life who loved and supported her through it all. It is a powerful and moving story of resilience and female solidarity.

The play opens with Maria (Tabatha Killick, a 2022 graduate of Toi Whakaari, the NZ Drama School) emerging from the red barn dressed as a man. “It’s been a year since I died, and still nobody has found me.”  Then we are transported back to her childhood and find out how she becomes firm life-long friends with four girls: Phoebe (Izzy Newton-Cross), Selena (Theresa Havers), Sarah (Maya Gatling) and Lucy (Micayla Clough).  

The first half of the play is a joyous romp of song, dance and laughter, as you see Maria and her friends grow from innocent, fun-loving girls into women. I am very impressed with how they sing in perfect 5-part harmony while at the same time dancing and making costume changes — proof of many hours of rehearsal and some very skilled choreography and direction.

A picture of the limited choices of working-class women in the early 1800s is deftly and simply painted in a number of ways: the women giggling while they share hints about birth control (“just jump up and down and shake it out” causes a few titters in the audience); scenes where they are hanging washing and sewing; Maria’s journey as she finds herself shunned and ostracised when she tries to forge a different path from what is expected.

The contrasting natures of the five women makes for some interesting interactions and dialogue. I particularly enjoy the earthy humour of the practical Sarah and Phoebe’s placidness contrasted with the nervous, righteous Lucy.

Lady Cooke’s character (Kate Mountcastle) is brilliant as she sails forth onto the stage with her smug hypocrisy, while Lindsey Rusling is very convincing as Maria’s stepmom, Ann Marten, showing great comic timing and emotional truth.

We also meet the rather plodding, parochial Thomas Corder, brother to the murderer William Corder, (both male parts played convincingly by Hannah Lockyer) who Maria falls in love with. William’s character is deliberately sketchy, his face hidden by a hood and his voiced silenced, yet Hannah still manages to convey his menace in her stance and demeanour.

With an all-female cast, Theresa Havers doubles as Maria’s other love interest, Peter Matthews, the rich young man who she is forbidden to marry.  

The play’s second half takes a darker turn as Maria’s life starts to unravel, and her friends become increasingly worried about her. They and her stepmom try to warn her about William, but she cannot see his faults and hangs on grimly to her belief that he loves her and she him. Tabatha Killick is particularly mesmerizing in these final scenes, portraying Maria’s distraught and unhinged state from misplaced guilt, fear of William, and exhaustion from giving birth.

This is the New Zealand debut of The Ballad of Maria Marten, brought to the stage by Maven Theatre Company, led by creative duo Jessica Clough and Sera Devcich. Newly established in Kāpiti, Maven’s debut is supported with funding from Kapiti District Council’s Arts Sustainability Fund.

Overall, Maven’s production is insightful, highly polished and imaginative. They make the most of the small Sir Jon Trimmer Theatre space and the venue’s excellent sound and lighting technology. The set (designed and constructed by Alison Clarke and Sera Devcich) is fittingly dominated by a red barn, cleverly created with interwoven translucent panels, giving plenty of scope for the lighting designer (Isaac Wards) to transition scenes from morning to night, from sun to rain and even fire.

The sound design (Darlene Mohekey) helps to bring the story alive without being overpowering. I particularly like how the sound of a horse whinnying plus reins leading offstage are all that is needed to convey a horse and carriage. Using the fall of a white cloth to create the sense of Thomas falling through ice is brilliant.

The costumes (Jessica Clough) are authentic for the period, well-made and fitted, yet simple enough to allow for some very quick costume changes – even on stage at times!  

Finally, the skill of director Sera Devcich is evident in many scenes, in how gesture and movement are used as much as the words to tell the story, in the emotional raw power of some scenes, and in the overall professionalism of the production.

The Ballad of Maria Marten is on this weekend and next Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Te Raukura ki Kāpiti.

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