Island Fringe show focuses on women's right to vote

A new play hits the Island Fringe Festival this season.

Set in 1919, Bessie Carrutherswants P.E.I. women to have the right to vote.

She's brings in a special guest from the U.K., composer and activist Ethel Smyth, for a meeting about the right for women to vote.

The show is called The Bessie Carruthers Study Club.Cast members Jennifer King and Suzanne Campbell came up with the idea, along with afew others, right before the deadline to submit ideas.

"We quickly put our heads together and realized that this July 1 was 100 years since women were able to run for office in Canada and thought that that would be a good place to start," Campbell said.

Island Fringe uses a random draw to determine which shows will be shown. King said she didn't expect The Bessie Carruthers Study Club to get picked.

"Your name literally goes in a hat," King said.

Portraying historical figures

The idea came about when King was looking into Smyth's story and waiting to portray her, or at least add some of her music to the play.

At the same time Campbell was looking for an Islander to play and came across Carruthers, who was instrumental in bringing about the vote for women on P.E.I.

"I found out she is my third cousin three times removed," she said.

The first meeting of the women's suffrage movement happened on the Island in August 1919.

"Now, we are August 2019 so we are really doing this 100-year journey, but doing it through songs, too," King said.

The show tells the story of Canadian women fighting for the right to vote through nine songs.

"Some of them are rally songs we would like to teach the audience," King said. "We want some audience participation because we think this is a really important part of our history."

Carruthers was born in Central Bedeque.Her father was a doctor and moved the family to Charlottetown.

She became the assistant supervisor for the P.E.I. Women's Institute when it was just getting startedand went on to become the supervisor until 1923 after she had helped secure the vote for women, Campbell said.

Playing with real history

The play focuses on an election period when the Liberals take power with John Bell becoming premier. It looks like the government is going to allow women to vote.

"Our premiseis that they have just won the election and Bessie and other women supporting the cause feel the time is now, " Campbell said.

The Bessie Carruthers Study Club plays Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at The Haviland Club Grand Room.

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