About the play

Against her family’s wishes, Sister Florence ‘Flo’ Whiting goes to war.

She leaves on a converted cruise ship on 28 November 1914, seeking adventure and purpose. In her late twenties, Flo’s already reached spinster status in her home town of Lithgow. She heads to countries she’s only read about in books and has never expected to see. Egypt, Greece, France.

Flo sees military tents against a pyramid skyline… coastlines of unimagined carnage… endless fields of white crosses. She meets Harold Jenkins who loves to sing and wear cherries on his ears, Colonel Francis who thinks women can’t adapt to the realities of war, Matron Watson who wants to look after her girls but doesn’t always succeed, Sister Mary Douglas whose lipstick melts in the Cairo heat and Captain William Davies who builds a pyramid from bully beef boxes and kisses her on a muddy road in France.

Sister Florence Whiting finds friendship and love and a world at its own throat. She finds the best and worst that humans can do. She finds her calling.