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Last week the press reported negative comments made by the leader of UKIP about working women who take time off to have families - challenged about his views on working mothers he said "I can't change biology"
This old-fashioned (to be kind) and backward (to be honest) view reminded me of some equally ridiculous and sexist discrimination towards working women - in this case actresses - almost exactly a century ago... On 29th January 1914 the Actresses' Franchise League held a Tea Dance at the Empress Rooms in Kensington. It was a fundraiser for the League and as well as Tea and the Tango, there were all sorts of other entertainments, including palmistry. Well-known actresses became waitresses for the occasion to serve the tables and thereby hangs a tale...
I'm preparing at the moment for an upcoming Platform event at the National on Tuesday 25th June called 'Suffragettes on Stage'.
It's going to feature extracts from suffrage plays and a panel discussion about the work of the Actresses' Franchise League. Actresses Samantha Bond and Janie Dee are going to be on the panel with Professor Maggie Gale from the University of Manchester and myself. Baroness Genista McIntosh is chairing. Samantha Bond directed a suffrage play for me called 'Lady Geraldine's Speech' in a triple bill of the plays called 'Knickerbocker Glories' at the Union Theatre in 2010 and Janie Dee took part in the first readings of the plays with me at the Novello and Prince of Wales Theatres back in 2008 - it'll be great to have their perspectives as both politically aware working women and actresses on their Edwardian counterparts. Hopefully it's a great mix on the panel - two tip top experienced, interested and intelligent actresses, a brilliant theatre historian and a Labour peer who has been on the boards of the RSC, the NT and the Opera House… and me ;) I'll be signing copies of 'The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays' afterwards. It's going to be a fantastic afternoon and will make the point (yet again) that women's work, writing and lives need to be celebrated, talked about and respected. Especially at the National Theatre. It runs from from 2.30-4pm in the Lyttelton Theatre and tickets are £6. CLICK HERE for more info and to book Hope to see you there! I’m working today in a box office in a West End theatre and took the opportunity to come into Blackfriars station and then walk into town along Fleet Street – it’s so quiet on a Sunday and it was a pleasure to enjoy the buildings and the sunshine.
Knickerbocker Glories was a show that I produced and was part of in June 2010 at the Union Theatre in London. It consisted of three fully staged one-act plays: Miss Appleyard’s Awakening by Evelyn Glover (first performed on 20th June 1911), Lady Geraldine’s Speech by Beatrice Harraden (part of the entertainment at the Princes Skating Rink for the WSPU’s Women’s Suffrage Exhibition in May 1909) and How The Vote Was Won by Cicely Hamilton and Chris St John, (first performed at the Royalty Theatre on the 13th April 1909). All of these pieces were originally presented for a sympathetic, pro-suffrage audience and all were originally written for the Actresses Franchise League.
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