Mrs T Foresees – The Lion & Unicorn Theatre, London

Mrs T Foresees tells the story of a would-be performer and medium navigating colonial Australia. It blends history, spiritualism, and survival.

Mrs T Foresees

Right, we’ve found the theme of the week for this week: dramas that take their time and give space to ideas. Following Cul-de-Sac at the Omnibus Theatre, the Salterton Arts Review heads north to Kentish Town, where Mrs T Foresees is playing at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre.

This play has been a long time in the making. Writer-director Gail Matthews first had the idea in the 1980s, sparked by an issue of Australian Women’s Weekly commemorating 200 years since the start of European settlement. It imagined a Victorian medium peering into the distant future. I remember Women’s Weekly from the ’80s (or at least the ’90s) and don’t recall it being a hotbed of radical inspiration, but clearly Matthews saw something others didn’t. An early draft emerged by 1991. And Mrs T Foresees, in its current form, finally makes it to the stage over three decades later.

If you’re here for the fortune-telling, though, you will need to be patient. Mrs T Foresees reminds me of early biographical/picaresque novels like The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, or The Adventures of Roderick Random. It’s structured as a series of episodes that chart a life. Our medium, Molly Tolpuddle (Carol Tagg), takes her stage name in homage to the 1830s Tolpuddle Martyrs – a subtle early hint that this is a story deeply interested in labour, justice, and resistance. And the present-day setting, as it were, is the Yarra Bend Asylum for the Lunatic and Insane. Clearly there’s a lot of back story to get through.

A Long Time in the Making

Molly flees Ireland under a cloud, and lands in colonial Australia full of dreams of the stage. Reality quickly crushes these flights of fancy. Matthews paints settler society in 19th-century Victoria as a hard, violent place: and probably a historically accurate one. Themes of sexual violence, racism, religious hypocrisy, and economic exploitation all appear across the decades. The play introduces a procession of colourful characters, some based on historical figures. Though I only clocked that when Molly meets the most obvious example.

Mrs T narrates these episodes to a curious trio whose status is pleasingly ambiguous. Are they fellow inmates? Ghostly witnesses? Or both? They are played with spirit and versatility by Dottie Lubienska, Michal Nowak, and Tom Barnes, each stepping into multiple roles to animate Molly’s story. I particularly enjoyed Lubienska’s performance: expressive, well-judged, and layered with empathy.

There’s a lot to admire here. Mrs T Foresees is an original piece of theatre, and rare in its decision to tackle Australian settler history so directly. I appreciated its sharp observations on the violence of colonial occupation: a dynamic where land is stolen, yet sanctified as God-given. The play’s structure is ambitious, and the demands placed on the ensemble give room for range and nuance.

But the scale of the material may also be its weakness. Such a wide sweep, both narratively and thematically, risks diluting the central idea. There are moments that feel overstuffed, or stretched thin. Some sharpening of focus or trimming of length might allow the piece to land with greater clarity and impact.

Still, if you enjoy theatrical storytelling that digs into the darker corners of history (or enjoy the shape and style of 19th-century novels) Mrs T Foresees may well be the play for you.

Salterton Arts Review rating: 3/5
Mrs T Foresees on until 7 June 2025. More info and tickets here.