The Straw Chair

Set in the first half of the eighteenth century, ‘The Straw Chair’ is Sue Glover’s internationally renowned play of profound power about liberty and love – both lost and discovered in the unlikeliest of settings.

Seventeen-year-old Isabel and her minister husband Aneas arrive from Edinburgh onto the remote island of Hirta (St. Kilda) to spread the gospel in the Gaelic speaking North. Their stormy start to marriage worsens as they encounter the extraordinary Lady Grange, a true historical figure named Rachel Chiesley, who’s tortured by a life of abduction and banishment. While Lady Grange tragically clings to her old straw chair, Isabel uncovers alarming similarities to her own situation as she battles between a desire for youthful exhilaration and the danger of being too troublesome a wife. When their intended short stay soon becomes as indefinite as that of Lady Grange, will they all ever return to civilisation?