Feminist Theatre – Then and Now: celebrating 50 years
Introduction by Elaine Aston; Edited by Cheryl Robson
Aurora Metro Books
ISBN 978-1913641382
Review author: Helen Murphy
Here is a book that sets out the records and reflections of feminist theatre makes in the UK from leading voices of the late twentieth century to the experiences of women in theatre during and after the covid-19 pandemic. Although the book’s title refers to ‘then’, throughout my reading its driving force and affect feels very much situated with the ‘now’. It is as though the book could not have been written without the ‘archival turn’ of this century, yet in setting down a feminist history of the last half a century, it is generative of the energy and rationale that keeps makers making.
The book’s feminist history as told by the women who lived it is of great values in a culture where, especially in the field of theatre and performance, the woman’s body can be vulnerable to second-hand readings that would claim it in arguing for female self-empowerment. As Elaine Aston points out in her introduction, feminisms of the eighties and nineties perpetuated inequalities by focusing on the self rather than society.
The authors contributing to this volume ground their views in their lived experience as women working in the arts. Overwhelmingly, all agree that society (‘We’) and therefore theatre needs feminism, namely a feminism that is intersectional and integrated: in 2024 our society is far from equal, and feminists today can channel the wisdom of their sisters, as illustrated by this volume, into the ongoing work of social justice in and through theatre. Perhaps that message is bleak. After all, what is there to celebrate in the fact that global women face discrimination? Moreover, feminist texts raise their own contradictions: for example, it is conspicuous to me that, although they are not the only authors to do so, two authors whose writing explicitly highlights multiple inequalities, SuAndi on her women raising the profile of black artists and Clare Summerskill on a lesbian perspective in theatre, are included at the very end of a long list of contents; I propose a gesture of equity would be to have included these earlier in the volume, or with the addition of an editor’s note to the reader. Moreover, the book is very ambitious in its scope and misses contributions from trans and male feminist theatre makers. Yet with its eschewing the ideology of progress with its proprietorial narrative of getting and having got equality, it could be that the collective penning of women’s labour in theatre gives shape to a sustainable sense of hope and love in a community. This is not only a reason to celebrate the past and present, but it also feels like a tiny glimpse of a society where patriarchy is history.
