Bridget tells the untold story of the York Suffragettes in new community play

"They asked me if I was interested and obviously, yes I was," says Bridget Foreman. "What a brilliant subject!" From Tuesday, that subject will be presented in Everything Is Possible: The York Suffragettes outside York Minster and in the main house of York Theatre Royal.

Bridget co-wrote In Fog And Falling Snow, the story of York's Railway King, George Hudson, in tandem with fellow York playwright Mike Kenny for the the Theatre Royal and Pilot Theatre's community play at the National Railway Museum in 2015, and now she turns her attention to the previously untold story of York women's involvement in the 20th century Suffragette movement.

In particular the story of Annie Seymour Pearson, the Heworth Green housewife who risked her life and her family to join the movement in 1913 and was the only York Suffragette to be imprisoned. "We know she lived next door to Heworth Green House, that rather grim-looking house that was the home of Edith Milner, who was a leading anti-Suffragette figure – which is a gift for a playwright, isn't it!" says Bridget.

Just as Robert Beaumont's book The Railway King was an invaluable resource for In Fog And Falling Snow, so University of Lincoln history professor Krista Cowman's pamphlet, The Militant Suffragette Movement In York, has been useful for Everything Is Possible. "Krista was the first to say there's not a lot of research material out there, but her pamphlet is important, and our research team have been finding out more information that has to be told," says Bridget.

"It's like a spider's web: what was happening in York connected with what was happening nationwide, so our play makes those connections while telling the local story, like Annie running a safe house at her home."

For example, Lilian Ida Lenton, Midlands Suffragist, dancer and winner of a French Red Cross medal for her service as an Orderly in the First World War, features in the play. "She was pretty much the star alchemist for the fire-bombing campaigns, travelling the country starting fires, and there was interview where she said, 'when I'm not in prison, I like to start two fires a week'," says Bridget.

"The reason she's in our story is she was intending to start a fire in Doncaster but there was an old woman in the house, so she didn't go ahead. Among the equipment they found was a newspaper cutting with the name Violet Key Jones, who was the Women's Social and Political Union organiser in York, so the trail led back to her, and in turn to Annie running her safe house.

"We also know Lilian came to York after she was imprisoned at Armley jail in Leeds, where she was in a terrible state after they tried to force-feed her when she went on a 'hunger strike'."

Force-feeding was described in The Times as a form of torture, where sometimes women's teeth were smashed and their jaws broken, says Bridget. "But the Government didn't want them to be seen as martyrs so women were sent him to regain strength before being imprisoned again. Lilian, though, was released after her force-feeding tube went into her lung rather than her stomach," she adds.

"In the end the only thing that stopped some of the women was the onset of the First World War. Lilian, for example, went off to work as a medical orderly, and you couldn't really make someone complete their sentence after their war service."

In Annie Seymour Pearson's case, "something happened to some young girls in a back lane in Heworth" that pushed her into the women's suffragist movement. "That's what tipped her over the edge, to give up all her church and political work to focus on women's suffrage and eventually take part in militant action, when she was arrested for obstructing a policeman on a London demonstration, even though such obstructions invariably ended with the women being the ones who suffered bloody noses," says Bridget.

"Annie was in prison for two days before her husband paid her fine, and even though she didn't take part in any further London demonstrations, she did run a safe house at a home, which opened up new possibilities for conflict."

Annie's former home does not bear a Blue Plaque in recognition of contribution to such a significant movement in British social history leading to women gaining the right to vote. "I think there's still a case for putting up a plaque," says Bridget. "There are discussions going on with the York Civic Trust and Krista Cowman, so let's see what happens."

Everything Is Possible: The York Suffragettes will run at York Theatre Royal from June 20 to July 1. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk