The Ballad of Maria Marten – Wilton’s Music Hall
Set in the 1820’s, writer Beth Flintoff and Artistic Director Ivan Cutting were keen to tell this age-old story of the death of Maria Marten from the viewpoint of the victim. The story has been told in many ways previously, but tended to look at the murderer, William Corder, rather than taking an interest in Maria Marten’s life.
Maria (Elizabeth Crarer), lived in a small rural village called Polstead where she had grown up in poverty losing her mother at an early age. This led to her looking after the house at age 10, until her father met and married Ann (Sarah Goddard) who was kindly and took over many of these tasks, so that Maria could finally have a childhood. She played with her friends who formed a club called the ‘hazard club’, in which they dared each ot...