If Walls Could Talk

Fairfax House/York Civic Trust/Written by Paul Birch/Performed by Mark Burghagen, Heather Carter, Thomas Frere & Edith Kirkwood/Digital Content Inkblot Films/Curated and Conceived by Sarah Burnage & Rachel Wallis/Funded by Arts Council, England/First produced in 2022/The exhibition returns April - November 2023

The Honourable Ann Fairfax was a truly remarkable woman: resilient, compassionate and devout. Yet history has not been kind to her. The story of her life has been dismissed as insignificant because of her gender, her status as a ‘mere spinster’ and assumptions of her incompetence based on her mental health.

Drawing on new research and rich archival documents, this exhibition brings to life the tumultuous events which impacted Ann following the death of her father in 1772. As you journey though Fairfax House’s historic interiors you will meet a cast of characters who played an influential role, for good and bad, in Ann’s life. People like Nathaniel Pigott, her cousin, who prayed on Ann and manipulated her into signing away control of her estates, or Father Bolton who valiantly sought to protect Ann and yet was spitefully punished by her detractors with imprisonment and a charge of treason.

Through interactive storytelling, audio and innovative new interpretation you will come face to face with Ann’s friends and foes, uncovering the world she inhabited: a world where being a single woman was seen as a curse, where displays of emotion were deemed irrational, and where being an heiress in charge of her own estates was seen as an impossibility.