The Play
Quilting the Armour
A new Australian play.
For the first time on stage, the Ned Kelly saga is seen through the eyes of women: Ned's mother, Ellen, and his sisters,
Maggie and Kate.
Quilting the Armour is story of
the courage and suffering of the women involved in the Kelly story, and uses the
traditional women's needlecraft of patchwork quilting as its central motif.
The painting by Sidney Nolan of Maggie
stitching blue fabric into her brother Ned's famous helmet was also inspirational.
It premiered in Glenrowan
at the Glenrowan and District Soldiers Memorial Hall on Friday 1st July
2005, during the 125th commemmoration of the Kelly siege of Glenrowan.
Three performances played to capacity audiences during the weekend.
QUILTING THE ARMOUR- the story of the women
The story that unfolds through the play
is that of family and community and how the story of the hunt for Ned, and his capture,
is only one part of the Kelly family tragedy.
Ned's mother, Ellen Kelly, is the central
character. She is a strong and spirited person with dreams of prosperity and freedom
in a new land. Ned does not appear in the play, but his presence is a constant in
the women's revelation of their story of the events that led to the deaths of their
brothers, Ned and Dan.
Hearing the story through the voices of
the Kelly women is a powerful means of conveying the full picture of what happened
to this family and why grief and conflict over the Kellys still remains in the community.
It is not just another Kelly Gang story
but a powerful female perspective of the tragic events of the late 1870s.
This website is designed to foster an interest in the Kelly women's stories and
to explore both historic and contemporary understandings of their lives and the
significant roles they played in the life of Ned Kelly.
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