Shrewsbury play at Edinburgh theatre
Actor Joanna Purslow has packed her truck and said goodbye to the classroom as she sets out on the adventure of a lifetime this month.
Shrewsbury based teacher Joanna’s one-woman play ‘Ursula, Queen of The Jungle’ has been selected by the prestigious C Venues Organisation and to be showcased at one of The Edinburgh Festival ’s most historic theatres, the Hill Street Studio.
“It’s is all ridiculously exciting,” she said. “I was born in Telford and teach in Shrewsbury and can’t quite believe I am representing Shropshire at such an internationally famous festival”.
The play was written specifically for Jo by Shrewsbury author and director Chris Eldon Lee after the pair worked together last year on ‘Shakespeare’s Will’ for the Bard’s 400th anniversary. That play was selected for premiere at Hamlet’s Elsinore Castle in Demark, before it transferred to The Wightman Theatre in Shrewsbury Square.
“We sent a video of that production and a draft script for ‘Ursula, Queen of the Jungle’ to Edinburgh”, said Chris, “and within 48 hours we were offered a prime venue at The Fringe. The joke is that the new play is about an English debutante who travelled out to India in 1938 to study a remote tribe of Naga head hunters. So, it was rather strange to be head hunted ourselves”.
‘Ursula, Queen of the Jungle’ was performed at The Wightman in May to over 500 people and is the new theatre’s first Edinburgh transfer. It tells the true story of amateur anthropologist Ursula Graham Bower who, when World War Two broke out, found herself leading scores of the Naga tribesmen against the Japanese Army advancing from Burma. “She was the only female combatant officer in the entire Allied Force,” says Chris, “which was definitely ‘not the done thing’. So, she was hidden away in Army records as a typist”.
Ursula also has a famous nephew; the BBC’s veteran Delhi Correspondent Mark Tully, who Chris and Jo met in March. “He was such a lovely man, very proud of his adventurous Aunt and so incredibly supportive,” says Jo. “He even recorded an introduction to the play especially for us. It was such a thrill to meet him”.
But there are more thrills to come for Jo and plenty of challenges too. Chris said: “There are over 2000 shows in Edinburgh this year and there will be over 50 other plays on stage at exactly the same time as ours. We have to work very hard just to win an audience and it would be jolly comforting to think that other Proud Salopians visiting the Edinburgh Festival this year might come and see the show.”
‘Ursula, Queen of the Jungle’ is at Venue 41 in Hill Street; daily from August 13-28 at 4.35pm. Tickets can be booked on 0845 260 1234.
