A fechter is a person who stands up for a cause and the Bonnie Fechters of this show are the inspirational women that Morna Burdon has encountered or researched in the course of her life and work. Their stories are told as a warm and witty lecture that puts the focus on discovery and celebration, interwoven with protest songs, mostly sung as sweet and wistful ballads.

If the gentleness of the delivery seems at odds with the violence that most of the women had to endure it becomes more apt when you realise that it never doubts for a moment that these women were correct, and that these battles were worth fighting. As most of the battles involve trade unionism, women’s liberation, and witches; all things that have faced intense pushback, with even witch burning being framed as a small price to pay for a stable hierarchy; quiet confidence is a bolder choice than ghoulish melodrama or strident agitprop.

In fact, many of the stories end in defeat. The triumph is often in the hope and resilience of the protesters, the unexpected alliances and friendships that they created, and the futures that they made possible with their sacrifices. The call for ‘bread and roses’ that demands a better quality of life, not just enough to get by on. Irreverent laments about pay and conditions, mythical bra burnings, the assertion that they ‘can’t forbid thinking’ which carries the conviction that if something can be thought, it can be done.

There’s also nothing smug or nostalgic about it. There’s no sense that these are the only stories that matter, or that these are the only worthy causes that exist. Stories and songs are associated with other stories and songs that make it seem as if the chain of story and song could be infinite. Jute mills in Dundee, tiger cages in Vietnam, songs sung in secret by women in Afghanistan, and songs sung in public by the acclaimed ensemble, Honey in the Rock, all given the space to echo and resonate. It encourages you to look for the fechters in your own life, or perhaps become a fechter yourself.

It could perhaps do with a drop of dire warning to bring home the risk of rebellion. The political prisoners of today might become the politicians of tomorrow, but they also might be dead. For some people, optimism is fatal. But, then, what kind of fechter would heed a warning?

This one off performance is part of ‘A Triptych for Our Times’ alongside ‘Gie Us Peace‘ and ‘The Sound of my Own Voice‘.

‘Bonnie Fechters‘ has finished its run