Phoebe 1999

Phoebe 1999 by Polly Marshall told the story of Brighton legend Phoebe Hessell, a local woman who claimed to have passed herself off as a man and fought in the Napoleonic wars.

Presented in The Zap night club on Brighton seafront, it used folk music, rock music, video and live action – as well as the talents of local drumming group RedZebra, who created sounds by bashing the railings and other fittings inside the club – to recreate the battles, the sea voyages, the hardship and the heroism of Phoebe's extraordinary life.