My Homage to the Actresses' Franchise League

Whilst on tour in the UK in the autumn of 2009, I thought a lot about the Actresses' Franchise League, local suffrage societies across the country and the history of performers being on tour. I decided that I would speak the final speech by 'Woman' in Cicely Hamilton's 1909 play "A Pageant of Great Women" on the stage in every venue that I knew had held, or was old enough to have held suffrage meetings or performances or might have been where members of the Actresses' Franchise League performed during their careers.

 I chose the speech from "Pageant", not only because it's beautiful, passionate and full of hope but also because it was one of the most widely performed suffrage plays in the period 1909-1914 and so therefore the most likely to have been done in that venue or town. Some venues were particularly special to me - and being in the Theatre Royal Margate was a thrill as so many AFL members had started their careers and trained in Margate with Sarah Thorne!

My elderly but very precious copy of the play!

Where possible, I filmed the speech with my laptop on stage. The clips have been on my computer ever since and I wanted to give putting them together a go - apologies for the sound quality and very amateurish editing - it's my first attempt at anything like this. 

Here's a list of the theatres included in the video:

Hull New Theatre
Cambridge Corn Exchange
Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch
Cheltenham Town Hall
Theatre Royal Bath
Pomegranate Theatre, Chesterfield
Plowright Theatre, Scunthorpe
Theatre Royal, Lincoln
Palace Theatre, Mansfield
The Anvil, Basingstoke
Congress Theatre, Eastbourne
Harlequin Theatre, Redhill
New Theatre, Oxford
Sheffield City Hall
Corn Exchange, Kings Lynn
Theatre Royal, Margate
Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
Grand Theatre, Swansea
Coronation Hall, Ulverston
Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Theatre Royal, Wakefield
Mayflower Theatre, Southampton
Chequer Mead Theatre, East Grinstead
Marina Theatre, Lowestoft
Swan Theatre, High Wycombe
Opera House, Jersey