While the preserves and rousing singing have indeed been its mainstays, the organisation has spent the past 100 years having a major influence on a range of social issues from improvements in public health to questioning the easy availability of pornographic literature to children.
The vital part the WI has played in the national way of life
was brilliantly portrayed by members of the Mikron Theatre group at Llangollen
Town Hall last night (Thursday) as they staged their play, Raising Agents, with
which they are touring the country to mark the institute’s centenary.
Although it came to Britain in 1915 just in the nick of time
to help out in the First World War, the WI was actually founded in Canada in
1897 by a woman named Adelaide Hoodless who was desperately looking for a way
out of isolation following the death of her child.
To commemorate the centenary playwright Maeve Larkin has
come up with a masterful piece of drama which seamlessly intersperses seminal
scenes from the organisation’s past with the story of a mythical present-day WI
in a make-believe town called Bunnington which is struggling to keep going in
the face of dwindling membership.
It was extremely thoughtful at the same time as being hilariously funny.
A hugely talented four-strong Mikron cast nip in and out of
a host of characters, starting with the iconic Mrs Hoodless as she battles male
prejudice against the fledgling institute in Victorian Canada.
Next, we were transported back across the Atlantic to First
World War Britain where a manic guest speaker shows queasy members how to help
combat the Hun by doing in their pet rabbits to make a nice pie.
Later, we’re on a smoke-filled British station as Mikron uses
a backcloth of the famous 1940s film Brief Encounter to portray another
important WI moment – when the Ministry of Food allocated sugar to the
institute so that branches across the country could produce gallons of jam to
help keep up national morale.
Each step of the way along the WI’s long journey we were
guided by the incredible versatility of the Mikron foursome who not only acted
with a touch a magic but also played instruments from an accordion to a flute
to accompany themselves in the specially-written songs which illuminated this
wonderful production.
The fact that Mikron, who tour on a narrow boat during the
summer and by road in the winter, were invited to Llangollen to perform the
piece was down to the area’s own Valley Girls WI whose members were on duty
during the evening along with ladies from Llangollen WI who, of course,
provided tea and some scrumptious cakes.
Gratifyingly, the Town Hall was packed to capacity with WI
groups from across North Wales and even the nearer bits of England.
And, naturally, at the end we all joined in a chorus of the hymn which has become the WI's anthem - Jerusalem.
