Women’s suffrage, with glamourised rebellion against oppression, is a topic ripe for dramatization. It was strange, then, to find Wired Theatre’s devised production so emotionally unaffecting.

Set in the Victorian vicarage of Hove’s St Barnabas' Church, we were introduced to a version of real-life suffragette Minnie Turner (Judith Horth), who ran a boarding house for female political outcasts in the years before the First World War.

As we learnt about other prominent feminists, including school founder Mary Hare and music hall star Kitty Marion, a convoluted plot involving terrorism and a mysterious film director unfolded.

Interspersed with silent movie-style flights of fancy to contrast the rose-tinted cinema view with the brutal reality for women fighting to vote, this performance boasted impressive period detail and admirable intent.

Affecting moments - notably Minnie’s retelling of hunger-strikers’ prison torture – offered glimpses of a better play trying to get out.

Sadly, though, a confusing script, cringe-worthy slapstick and repetitive direction made for a difficult hour. Worst of all, a damaging lack of characterisation bizarrely left the bed-ridden Mrs Boxall (an excellent Elaine Mitchell) and shady con-artist Jack (Robin Humphreys) as the only memorable characters. In a play about women’s rights, a series of indistinguishable female leads proved fatal.