Vesta Tilley, Hetty King and Ella Shields; Annie Hindle, Ella Wesner and Bessie Bonehill. These are women whose names don’t perhaps mean a great deal today, but at the height of their popularity, at the end of the 19^th century, they commanded fees as high as Madonna or Kylie Minogue might today, by donning a man’s suit and singing about women, war and wine.

The Girl I Left Behind Me sheds new light on the era in which the woman in trousers was king, through a program of staged songs interspersed with anecdotes both historical and contemporary.

The wealth of material sung by these ladies has remained largely untouched for years. Whilst many people are aware of the more famous numbers, such as Burlington Bertie from Bow, and After the Ball, the earlier songs brought over from America, such as Don’t Put your Foot on a Man when he’s Down and Pretty Jemima are almost never performed. 

Jessica Walker has enjoyed a successful career in both opera and cross-over repertoire, in Britain and internationally. Recent engagements include Gloria in Weill’s One Touch of Venus at Opera North and Peep Bo in the Mikado for Reis Opera, Netherlands.

Neil Bartlett is a theatre director and writer. From 1994-2005 he was Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith in London ; since leaving the Lyric his work has included large-scale projects for the RSC (Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet) as well as the award-winning The Pianist with Mikhail Rudy and Peter Guinness and the world premiere of Everybody Loves A Winner, both for the Manchester International Festival. 

The Girl I Left Behind Me is a full evening of theatrical and musical entertainment, but it is a simple one to stage. It requires a bare stage, a piano, a microphone, a few items of simple costume and a few simple lighting states (a maximum of twenty lamps, a minimum of a dozen). For touring purposes, the lighting for the show could easily  be pre-rigged in a couple of hours; the focusing and plotting, together with a sound-check, could easily be accomplished on the afternoon of the day of performance. The show is intended for small theatres and studio spaces rather than big theatres or concert halls.

Duration: 70 minutes

Performers: Jessica Walker accompanied by James Holmes

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