The Sewing Group review – power struggles of the quilt makers

Royal Court, London
In EV Crowe's teasing tale, the suspicion and rebellion among rural women in 1700s England lead to troubling questions about the modern world

EV Crowe tends to write about enclosed worlds. In Kin (2010) she examined life in a girls' boarding school, while in Hero (2012) she exposed the homophobic bullying of a supposedly gay teacher. Set in rural England in the 1700s, her latest play looks like an extension of her fascination with closed communities but, without giving too much away, turns out to be a puzzling if intriguing piece about the influence of technology on the human mind.

It begins with a rapid succession of short scenes showing black-gowned women embroidering a piece of stretched lace by candlelight. Initially there are two of them known simply as A and B. They are joined by a newcomer, C, who starts as an innocent novice but who gradually asserts her authority. She introduces striking colours and radical designs into the sewing circle and when a grieving widow, D, joins them, she assumes complete control. She gets the women to make character-revealing quilts and stirs up mutual suspicions with accusations of theft.