The Women's War
Plays by Cicely Hamilton, Christopher St John, Evelyn Glover, Bernard Shaw and Ethel Smyth
Plays by Cicely Hamilton, Christopher St John, Evelyn Glover, Bernard Shaw and Ethel Smyth
The Finborough Theatre is celebrating the anniversaries of women's suffrage with a special program featuring plays, sketches, and music highlighting the struggle for the vote, including contributions from notable playwrights and a tribute to suffragette Emily Wilding Davison.
About The Play
About The Play
To celebrate and commemorate these anniversaries, we return to the Finborough Arms of 1913 for a visit by the Actresses Franchise League, the well-known political pressure group performing specially-written plays to win support for the Cause… The bill will comprise –
How the Vote Was Won by Cicely Hamilton and Christopher St John – Horace Cole had always argued that women did not need the vote because they are “looked after” by men. But when he is confronted with a household of female relatives demanding to be “supported”, the anti-suffrage hero realises the error of his ways and rushes to march on parliament to demand votes for women – now !
A Chat with Mrs Chicky by Evelyn Glover – Charwoman Mrs Chicky finds herself confronted by Mrs Holbrook who is collecting signatures for her anti-suffrage petition. This deeply humorous sketch dramatises the arguments of working class women in favour of the vote.
Press Cuttings by Bernard Shaw – “Compiled from the editorial columns of the daily papers during the women’s war in 1909”
Appalled by the forcible feeding of suffragette prisoners on hunger strike, Bernard Shaw wrote this satirical look at how General Mitchener and Prime Minister Balsquith treat those who are both for and against the vote. Press Cuttings was originally banned by the Lord Chamberlain for “attempted blasphemy”, and has not been seen in London for 21 years.
March of the Women – Music by Dame Ethel Smyth. Lyric by Cecily Hamilton. The anthem of the suffragette movement.
Tribute to Emily Wilding Davison – A tribute – compiled from eyewitness reports – to Emily Wilding Davison who died after throwing herself under the King’s horse at the 1913 Derby.
The Women’s War has been specially commissioned for the Finborough Theatre by Artistic Director Neil McPherson. The play is co-produced by Concordance whose other co-productions at the Finborough Theatre have included Larry Kramer’s The Destiny of Me and Louise Page’s Falkland Sound,and directed by exciting new director Laura Dunton Clarke. This production is presented with the support of the Friends of Brompton Cemetery. Brompton Cemetery, adjacent to the Finborough Theatre, is the last resting-place of many leading suffragists including Dame Ethel Smyth and Mrs Pankhurst herself.