Fanny Lye and the allegorical appeal of the puritans

British period drama ‘Fanny Lye Deliver’d’ offers a powerful take on England’s bleak past – but it is far from the first example of this historical sub-genre.

Fanny Lye Deliver’d Source: Distributor

If filmmakers go looking for one of the best settings for historical drama, they will be hard-pressed to find one as innately dramatic as England’s Puritan Republic. The Commonwealth of England, the Interregnum – call it what you will; this 11-year period from 1649 to 1660 is rife with conflict, personal drama, societal change, and all the violence, horror and thematic relevance that a feature film would ever need. It is the setting for Thomas Clay’s bold 2019 feature Fanny Lye Deliver’d, which is finally receiving an Australian release thanks to SBS On Demand.

The Puritan Republic in a nutshell: following a bloody civil war in England, the victors executed King Charles I and declared a Commonwealth. Four years in, their Parliament was dissolved and replaced with General Oliver Cromwell as dictator.

It was only after Cromwell’s death in 1658 that this brief republic segued back towards a monarchy and invited the exiled Charles II back to assume the throne. (The younger Charles was not in a forgiving mood upon his return: it did not matter that Cromwell had already died, Charles had the body dug up, hung, drawn and quartered simply to drive home his level of displeasure.)

Maxine Peake as Fanny Lye in ‘Fanny Lye Deliver’d’. Source: Distributor

Cromwell was a Puritan. As England’s Lord Protector he enacted numerous bans on what he perceived as immoral behaviours. The theatres were closed. Dancing and drunkenness were forbidden. Celebrating Christmas was made illegal. By contrast, religious freedom had not been as liberal in centuries. As long as parish priests were themselves Puritans, Cromwell’s government did not police how individuals worshipped in their homes.

At the same time, Cromwell’s reign coincided with the most intense period of witch trials in British history. Take a step back, and it is clear that the Puritan Republic was a place of oppression and control. Oppression of people’s personal freedoms and control over women. It all makes for bleak, provocative material to generate drama.

This state of affairs is front and centre in Clay’s film, which sees dutiful wife Fanny (Maxine Peake) live an obedient existence under the command of her husband John Lye (Charles Dance). Their quiet life in rural Shropshire is interrupted by the arrival of two naked fugitives – Thomas (Freddie Fox) and Rebecca (Tanya Reynolds) – and the radical beliefs that they introduce to the Lye household.

It is a beautifully composed film, and boasts marvellous performances all round. While its middle section may wobble a little in terms of believability, it all wraps up in a surprising and rather confronting third act.

Fanny Lye Deliver'd, Freddie Fox, Maxine Peake

Thomas (Freddie Fox) with Fanny (Maxine Peake) in ‘Fanny Lye Deliver’d’. Source: Dirk Eichler

Fanny Lye joins a rather select range of Puritan-inspired features, with a tendency towards confronting violence and creepy superstition. Michael Reeves’ iconic 1968 thriller Witchfinder General immediately springs to mind, featuring Vincent Price as the terrifying self-appointed witch hunter Matthew Hopkins. As with Fanny Lye, the religious dogma and superstition of the period is exploited to violently oppress women. Despite its age, it remains a surprisingly confrontational work.

The explosion of witch trials in the 17th century have practically inspired a sub-genre all of their own, most recently with Neil Marshall’s uninspiring The Reckoning (2020). Much better examples can be found by following the Puritans across the sea to North America: in 1996 Nicholas Hytner directed Arthur Miller’s own screenplay for The Crucible, while in 2015 Robert Eggers positively knocked it out of the park with The Witch. The latter is a palpable expression of Puritan religious superstition and one of the finest folk horror films ever made.

The period inspires further horrors in Ben Wheatley’s unsettling film A Field in England (2013). This intimate psychological horror, set during the Civil War, sharply casts several comedic actors against type including Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh) and Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen). Like Fanny Lye Deliver’d, A Field in England touches on the historical use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in mid-17th century society.

Rebecca (Tanya Reynolds) in ‘Fanny Lye Deliver’d’. Source: Dirk Eichler

Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo’s Winstanley (1975) is a commendable attempt to tell a much more realistic and historically accurate account of Puritan life. It recounts the efforts of social reformist Gerrard Winstanley to establish a proto-socialist farming community in Sussex. Such a dream cannot last, however, with Winstanley’s efforts and teaching earning the ire of local landowners.

Viewers seeking a stirring account of the central figures behind the Second Civil War and the Interregnum are well served by director Ken Hughes’ old-fashioned but broadly accurate biographical film Cromwell (1970). With a high-profile cast of British stars including Alec Guinness, Richard Harris and Michael Jayston, it is a rather watchable history lesson on the general events and personalities of the time.

Fanny Lye Deliver’d marks another worthwhile contribution to Puritan-inspired cinema, using the power relations and bigotries of the time to make a powerful statement on the oppression of women today. It seems that is what adapting history is best at doing: not illuminating the past so much as allegorising the present. Showcasing modern-day failings through a period lens helps make the medicine go down.

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