Votes for Women!Part of the Courage Everywhere weekend.

Dorfman Theatre. November 18, 2018

First written in 1907 by the playright and suffragette Elizabeth Robbins, this is a wonderful and suprisingly relevant play to finish this weekend’s centenary celebrations at the NT of votes for (some) women.

This was a rehearsed reading, directed by Lynsey Turner that the actors had been working on for only 2 days. It was SUPERB.

The play covers the period around 1907 as the suffragette movements starts to take direct action (but hunger strikes and force feeding have not yet started.

My theatre buddy and I were both shocked at how relevant it felt. The play deals with— equal pay, sharing domestic responsibilities, unwanted pregnancy, and so much more that feels so now. It builds to be a fizzing, vibrant and nuanced piece (the nuance and ambiguity is apparently what got this past the censors in 1907).

There was an after-show Q&A with some of the actors and a wonderfully passionate Dr Naomi Paxton, an expert in suffragist theatre. I love hearing about the creative process these behind the scenes opportunities give. And the context provided by Dr Paxton was fascinating.

I looked around the Dorfman and it felt like an incredibly empowering and empowered space filled with women and men. I loved that and wished I could have seen and experienced more this weekend.

There is still an exhibition in the Lyttleton Foyer “Dramatic Progress: Votes for Women and the Edwardian Stage”. Go see it.

Also there are apparently a lot of these plays that are rarely performed. I’d like to see more of them added to the canon please. It’s time.

5/5 This is what theatre does best.