This is the first of two episodes about the GEES Project's film of The Concealed Fancies (which you can find on YouTube or by clicking a link at geesproject.com), a play written by Jane Cavendish and Elizabeth Brackley, née Cavendish, during the English Civil Wars with an induction by Paul Hopkins to move the action from the Cavendish sisters’ house arrest during wartime to the confinement we experienced with the Covid pandemic.

The Cavendish sister’s play has about 20 songs and additional opportunities for music between the acts. Music director talked to Prof. Deanne Williams about how he adapted songs by composers contemporary with the sisters, William and Henry Lawes, John Wilson and others, and why he chose the unusual combination of ukulele and viola to accompany the songs.

Our film and this chat were supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Killam Trust, York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and many individual donors who you can read about in the credits of our film.