John Maguire and Samantha Alton at the Upper Street venue

A NEW play is celebrating the work of a life-saving pioneer of public health.

Kitty: Queen of the Washhouse, being staged at the King’s Head Theatre in Upper Street, tells the story of Kitty Wilkinson, an Irish immigrant who helped to end the cholera epidemic in Liverpool.

She was told that if she cleaned the bedsheets with boiling water, chlorine and lime, she could stop the disease from spreading. The only woman on her street to have a boiler, Kitty took it upon herself to do this.

Her story has been turned into a play by John Maguire, with his long-time collaborator Samantha Alton playing the part of Kitty.

“The cholera epidemic was getting worse and worse, to the point that she opened a washroom out of the back of her kitchen, and people from the community were coming to the house and using it as a public house to wash and get fed,” said Ms Alton.

“She was also looking after all of the orphans of the people who had died, and then she opened up a school in her own home to teach them.

“Once the cholera epidemic had been contained, she was recognised by the Queen, and lots of other important people of the time as being this pioneer of public health.”

She added: “It’s really weird, because we started working on this play in 2018, so pre-pandemic, and when I was first playing her it was this really far removed thing that I couldn’t imagine. Then Covid happened and I was like, ‘Oh my god, imagine how scary that was’ – and she was just doing everything for everyone.”

Ms Alton said she feels the play espouses the universal message of “nobody was ever the poorer for what they gave a neighbour in distress”, adding: “We wanted to bring the play to Islington because the people here are socialist – they’ll think, ‘We do want to share, and we do want to make the community better, and we’ll encourage that behaviour.’

“And anyone who’s not in that way of thinking will come and see a show like this and be like, ‘I’ve got it wrong, I’m living a very isolated life. And actually, it’d be so much better if I was just a bit nicer to everybody else, and I scratch their back and maybe they’ll scratch mine’.”

• Kitty: Queen of the Washhouse starts tonight (Friday), and ends its run in the King’s Head Theatre on March 13.