“Mary Anning” by Judith Bingham
for solo voice, gravel and rocks
a study of the famous Victorian paleontologist (premiered at St. Magnus Festival 2012 by Alison Wells)
Text by Mary Anning, Molly Anning, Anna Maria Pinney, Thomas Hawkins, Isaac Watts, H.F. Lyte, Charles Wesley, Alfred Lord Tennyson, David Hume, Gideon Mantell, Henry Kirke White, Thomas Love Beddoes, E.B.Pusey, Wisdom. Collated and added to by Judith Bingham. Hymn tune: St. Bride, by Samuel Howard.
I have been called prim, pedantic, shrewish, vinegar-looking, fossil, old maid, and worse.
electric voice theatre production from Lyme Regis to the Stage
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- I am well known throughout the whole of Europe!
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- …….verteberries, devil’s toenails, sea lilies, ammos, scuttle and crocodile teeth….
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- It is here at Black Ven that the crocodiles lie.
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- Why would God create such a creature? The mighty thoughts of an old world fan like a dragon’s wings unfurled.
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- But I think that we know nothing of creation, nothing of causes, nothing of space and time. We are ignorant.
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- I weep that I am all alone.
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- In 1828- winter storms – I found a dragon, “ pterodactylus macronyx”.
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- Mary Anning at work
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- I can say what I like to whom I like
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- Drawing of the Plesiosaur that Mary Anning uncovered in 1821.
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- Stage set for Bingham’s “Mary Anning”
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- Frances M Lynch as Mary Anning on Lyme Regis Beach
For more information about Mary Anning and fossil hunting please visit the following websites:
Minerva Scientifica sets out to look at the links that exist between women scientists both in history and the present day and to find ways of increasing public engagement with the physical science and with the issues encountered by expert female scientists through a parallel exposure to women composers and artists.