Rage And Reason: Women Playwrights on Playwriting

193 Pages·1997·9.533 MB·English

by  Heidi Stephenson

Rage and Reason
Women Playwrights
on Playwriting
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Rage and Reason
Women Playwrights
on Playwriting
Heidi Stephenson
and Natasha Langridge
B L O O M S B U RY
LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY
Bloomsbury Methuen Drama
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Pic
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Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Pic
First published in the United Kingdom in 1997 by Methuen
© 1997 Heidi Stephenson and Natasha Langridge
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Heidi Stephenson and Natasha Langridge have asserted their rights under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from
action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
Visit www.bloomsbury.com to find out more about our authors and their books
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ISBN: PB: 978-0-4137-1600-2
ePDF: 978-1-4725-3801-7
ePUB: 978-1-4081-7803-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
For William Stephenson,
Mary-Ellen, Anny, Jayne and Crub.
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction ix
Sarah Daniels 1
Debbie Isitt 9
Phyllis Nagy 19
Anna Reynolds 29
Helen Edmundson 36
Winsome Pinnock 45
April de Angelis 54
Sharman Macdonald 61
Charlotte Keatley 71
Clare Mclntyre 81
Pam Gems 88
Jenny McLeod 98
Bryony Lavery 105
Tanika Gupta 115
Judith Johnson 122
Sarah Kane 129
Timberlake Wertenbaker 136
Marina Carr 146
Claire Dowie 156
Naomi Wallace 163
Many thanks to the following people for their invaluable
assistance:
Leigh Acton, Thomas Albrecht, Claire Armistead (at the
Guardian), Use Axer, Phil Beadle, Michael Billington (at the
Guardian), Sebastian Born (at The Agency), Jack Bradley (at
the Royal National Theatre), Mike Bradwell (at the Bush Theatre),
Peggy Butcher (at Faber & Faber), Leah Byrne, Annie Castledine,
Chris, Regina and Helga (at Smallbrook House), Emma Cook (at
the Independent), Stephen Daldry (at the Royal Court Theatre),
Lucy Davies (at the Donmar Warehouse), Romano Decker,
Dominic Dromgoole (at the Old Vic), Ellen Dryden, Sue Ellis,
Trina Epsom (at MacNaughton Lord Representation), Richard Eyre
(at the Royal National Theatre), Vicky Featherstone (at Paines
Plough), Elisabeth Feuser, Karyn Fletcher, Lisa Goldman (at The
Red Room), Bonnie Greer, Dave Hall, Rod Hall (at A. P. Watt),
Sally Homer, Mark Ingarfield, Ben Jankovich (at Hampstead
Theatre), Joanna and Tony (formerly at the Brix Theatre), Jude
Kelly (at West Yorkshire Playhouse), Jacqueline Korn (at David
Higham Associates), Goran Kostic, Julia Kreitman (at The Agency),
Kristine Landon-Smith (at Tamasha), Sheila Lemon (at The
Agency), Jenny Long (at the Theatre Managers Association), Nick
Marston (at A. P. Watt), Judy Martin, Ruth Needham (at MBA
Literary Agents), Pamela Osborne, Emily Pinkney, Alan Radcliffe
(at William Morris Agency), Joanne Reardon (at the Bush Theatre),
Samantha, Leah Schmidt, Brian Schwartz (at Off-Stage), Sheffield
Academic Press, Max Stafford-Clark (at Out of Joint), Sarah Stroud
(at Judy Daish Associates), Jenny Topper (at Hampstead Theatre),
Richard Wareham, Colin Watkeys, Susanna Wilford, Jules Wright
(at the Women's Playhouse Trust) and Graham Wybrow (at the
Royal Court Theatre). With special thanks to Michael Earley and
Helena Beynon (at Methuen), Mel Kenyon (at Casarotto Ramsay),
Geraldine Collinge (at BAG), the staff at the Theatre Museum,
Covent Garden and, of course, to the playwrights themselves -
without whom this book would have been just a passing dream.
Introduction
British theatre, in the last thirty years, has undergone nothing short
of a revolution - from a point where the woman playwright was
almost an anomaly, to the present, in which more women are
writing for the stage than ever before. Never have we had such a
prolific and diverse body of their dramatic work as we do now.
Many of their plays, like Caryl Churchill's Top Girls and Cloud
Nine, Pam Gems's Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi, Charlotte Keatley's
My Mother Said I Never Should, Sarah Daniels's Masterpieces,
Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good and Sarah Kane's
Blasted, have swiftly become canonical and are now contemporary
landmarks by consensus. Women playwrights have broadened the
agenda of British drama. Both the form and content of their work
have pushed the boundaries of what it is possible to show and
tell on stage and our theatre culture is infinitely richer for their
contribution. We felt their titanic achievements needed celebrating.
We were also curious to discover more about how they craft their
plays, why they write, where they find their stories and why,
despite their success, they continue to be under-represented in
mainstream theatre.
That they are under-represented is acknowledged by theatre man-
agements across the board in Britain. The simple fact is that theatre
is still predominantly run by men and commented on by men. The
most up-to-date research, Jenny Long's survey 'What Share of the
Cake Now?'"" concludes that only twenty per cent of productions
*This survey, conducted at the end of 1994, which analyses the distribution patterns
of employment amongst women in theatre companies in receipt of Arts Council
revenue funding in England, is the only current statistical research available, but
from our own investigations, its results still hold true. The author, Jenny Long,
works for the Theatre Managers Association, who are planning to publish the
survey. The analysis was undertaken as a graduate thesis at the University of North
London.