Stella Duffy says the theatre programming gender imbalance is ignorant, and asks how female audiences are affected when they don’t see themselves on stage.
Right then, have a look here. And also have a look here in the Ham & High – you need to scroll through to page 20.
And if you can’t be bothered reading, the basic point is that Equity have written to 43 artistic directors of subsidised theatres (including the Hampstead Theatre, which both of these links refer to) drawing their attention to the gender imbalances in their programming. To the fact that play after play they are offering more work to many more men than women actors, showing many more male characters than female.
So. At a time when young women are being denied education in some parts of the world, when women of all ages are being told they need to cover their hair/their faces/themselves so as not to offend men of various religious sensibilities, when women are being ‘correctively’ raped to shut them (us) up, when abortion rights are being systematically dismantled in parts of the US – why are Equity making a fuss about how many women we see on our (publicly funded) stages?
Because it’s all joined up. Because if here, in nice liberal (ish) Swiss Cottage (it may be called the Hampstead Theatre, but it is in Swiss Cottage) – and in the 40-odd other theatres across Britain that Equity has sent one of these letters to – women are not seeing ourselves on stage, it is damaging to women in places where life is much much worse. If we do not see ourselves here, if our daughters do not see themselves reflected, then we too, lose power. We lose the power to help the other women who desperately need our help.
Right then, have a look here. And also have a look here in the Ham & High – you need to scroll through to page 20.
And if you can’t be bothered reading, the basic point is that Equity have written to 43 artistic directors of subsidised theatres (including the Hampstead Theatre, which both of these links refer to) drawing their attention to the gender imbalances in their programming. To the fact that play after play they are offering more work to many more men than women actors, showing many more male characters than female.
So. At a time when young women are being denied education in some parts of the world, when women of all ages are being told they need to cover their hair/their faces/themselves so as not to offend men of various religious sensibilities, when women are being ‘correctively’ raped to shut them (us) up, when abortion rights are being systematically dismantled in parts of the US – why are Equity making a fuss about how many women we see on our (publicly funded) stages?
Because it’s all joined up. Because if here, in nice liberal (ish) Swiss Cottage (it may be called the Hampstead Theatre, but it is in Swiss Cottage) – and in the 40-odd other theatres across Britain that Equity has sent one of these letters to – women are not seeing ourselves on stage, it is damaging to women in places where life is much much worse. If we do not see ourselves here, if our daughters do not see themselves reflected, then we too, lose power. We lose the power to help the other women who desperately need our help.