Cam City WI are staging a play about the history of the WI, which this year celebrates a century of inspiring and empowering British women.
The play, produced in accordance with Mikron Theatre Company, is set around Bunnington WI whose dwindling membership means they can barely afford the hall, let alone a decent speaker. So when a PR guru signs up as their latest member, the women are glad of new blood.
However the milk of WI kindness begins to sour when she re-brands them the Bunnington Bunnies. They’re mad. Hopping mad. With stakes higher than a five-tiered cake-stand, a battle ensues for the very soul of Bunnington, and perhaps the WI itself!
On the threshold of one century into the next, this tale of hobbyists, lobbyists, and above all, friendship, asks how much we should hold on to our past and how much we should embrace the future.
Raising Agents is showing at St Andrew’s Street Baptist Church, Cambridge, 29 May at 7.30pm. Refreshments are served from 6.30pm and are bound to be particularly good – this is the WI after all! Tickets £10/£12.
Did you know?
:: The WI originates from Canada, and came to the UK in 1915 with the aim of revitalising rural communities and encouraging women to help with food production during the First World War.
:: The WI have campaigned throughout the decades for equal pay, breast cancer screening, AIDS awareness and were among the first to debate the dangers of smoking.
:: The WI is the largest women’s voluntary organisations in the UK with over 212,000 members in 6,600 WIs.
:: Cambridge city centre alone has four WIs: Cam City, Cambridge LadyBirds, The Blue Belles and the Castle WI.
Find out more about another of Cambridge’s new WIs, the Cambridge Blue Belles, here
