We are very familiar with Dr Elsie Inglis here in Edinburgh. She founded the Scottish Women’s Hospitals and was so eminent during her lifetime that her funeral was held in St Giles Cathedral. Now Army@TheFringe bring her story back to Edinburgh.
One of the women who worked in the hospitals was Australian surgeon Lilian Violet Cooper. Her story as well as those of others who showed courage and endurance features in Hallowed Ground. It is set against the vast landscape of war from World War I to the present day and unites four women across a century to share their personal stories of being a military doctor.
Lilian, a surgeon in her fifties, denied military service in Australia in World War One, travels abroad to join The Scottish Women’s Hospital, serving in the remote Balkan snowfields. In World War Two, Mary, a specialist radiologist, she too denied service with the Australian Army, finds herself the only woman among 3000 British troops bound for the Middle East. As a peacekeeper on active service in Iraq, young doctor Tam, plagued by dreams of fleeing war-torn Saigon, reconciles her own refugee experience while rehabilitating the displaced Kurdish people. Catherine, a surgeon in Afghanistan, reflects on the journeys of the remarkable women who paved the way for her own experience as a modern military doctor. In these stories of revelation, loss, struggle and kinship; moments of hope and humour punctuate the otherwise harrowing task of conflict medicine.
Written and researched over two years by Carolyn Bock and Helen Hopkins, The Shift Theatre brings together a fine ensemble cast and creative team under the direction of Catherine Hill.
Dates: 13th – 25th August 2019 (not 19th)
Time: 5.20pm
Duration: 60 minutes
Venue: 210 Army@The Fringe Drill Hall 89 East Claremont St
Tickets: £10/£8
Bookings: 0131 560 1581
armyatthefringe.org/hallowed-ground
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
