Lady Swettenham

Set in the late 1800s till 1938, Lady Swettanham unravels the story of the stormy marriage between a popular and well-respected British Resident of Malaya (and later, Governor of Singapore) Sir Frank Swettenham and a young impressionable English girl, Constance Sydney Holmes.

The old world of the British Raj comes to life in this performance featuring the manic depressive Sydney, sometimes referred to as Connie. The play chronicles the life of the Swettanhams through the eyes of the young and naive Connie but also through the eyes of her old, garrulous self. Frank Swettanham, famous for the many advancements he introduced into Malaya, such as the railway system, education, port facilities and rubber as a cash crop, is seen as an impatient and irascible man given to banishing his young wife to asylums in England when she was overcome by manic depression or whenever it did not suit him to have her in Malaya. His many trips to India for cricket and horse riding, made without the company of his wife whose suspicions of the presence of other female companions became the reason for many a domestic misunderstanding.

Her colourful and eccentric behaviour became an embarrassment to her husband, who finally interred her into an asylum in 1915 till her death in 1938. She was divorced at the age of about 78 and only found out about the decree nisi in the newspapers.