Votes for Women

A collection of the best suffrage plays, introduced and set in an historical context by Dr Susan Croft together with an expert chronology of suffrage drama.

The astonishing women involved in the Actresses Franchise League set up their own theatre companies and engaged with the battle for the vote by writing and performing campaigning plays all over the country. They launched themselves onto the political stage with their satirical plays, sketches and monologues whilst at the same time challenging the staid conventions of the Edwardian Theatre of the day. The legacy of their inspiring work to change both theatre and society has survived in the political theatre, agitprop and verbatim theatre we know today. The Plays included are:
Votes for Women by Elizabeth Robins

A Change of Tenant by Helen Margaret Nightingale

At the Gates by Alice Chapin

How the Vote was Won by Cicely Hamilton and Chris St. John

The Apple by Inez Bensusan

In the Workhouse by Margaret Wynne Nevinson

Jim’s Leg by L.S. Phibbs