Radical Rediscovery: New exhibition charts history of women’s theatre

From the 1960s to the 1980s demonstrations against sexism increasingly used performance art as a means of protest.

Despite the significant works produced by female theatre makers, playwrights, directors and  feminist collectives during this time, their history has often been overlooked, their archives neglected.

Now, a free exhibition in South London will revisit archival material, pivotal performances and the landmark venues they were hosted by.

Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-1992, will run from November 8, until December 1, at London Performance Studios (LPS), Penarth Street, South Bermondsey.

The exhibition has been curated by LPS associate artist Dr Susan Croft, whose ongoing archive project Unfinished Histories is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the history of Alternative Theatre in Britain from the 1960s to the early 90s.

Dr Croft said: “Back in the 1960s and 70s, theatre work by and about women was very hard to find.

“Directors and playwrights were assumed to be male, most roles, especially good ones, were for men and most companies male dominated.”

With the growth of second wave feminism, in late 1973, a group of women put on the first Women’s Theatre Festival at the Almost Free Theatre in Soho.

They began a collective conversation about how to bring about change, they asked questions about their marginalisation and demanded space, funding, opportunities and challenged prejudices.

From mothers’ groups to union members, they started to get together to make works about their experience and tour it to new audiences across the country.

Dr Croft said: “Feminist organisations demanded that larger theatres employed more women directors and that women writers be commissioned, as well as asking for seats on Boards, and access to training.”

South London played an important part in this history.

Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-1992, will feature archival material from Motherland, a community play first performed at Oval House Theatre – now Brixton House – in 1982.

Motherland was created by young women who attended Vauxhall Manor School to reflect the racial mix of the school and the living experience and oral history of many of the young women’s mothers and grandmothers.

The play is based on the testimonies of 23 mothers, it traced the struggles that many of the young women faced coming to Britain from the Caribbean in the late 1940s and 50s. 

Contradicting its own title, Motherland was about the reality of Caribbean women’s experience, arriving in Britain, finding housing, work and schools, and the survival of West Indian culture amidst the pressures to conform.

Elsewhere in the exhibition, visitors will find evidence of the camberwell-based 1980s company, Umoja, which later became the Blue Elephant Theatre as well as the Second Wave Young Women’s project, which was based at The Albany in Deptford.

Founded by Cath Kilcoyne, a working-class young woman, the Second Wave Young Women’s project supported and encouraged young black female writers like J.B. Rose, Trish Cooke, Killean Gideon, Shorelle Cole, Lisselle Kayla, Pauline Jacobs and the Bemarro Sisters, and led to the publication of two anthologies.

As well as showcasing these works, Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-1992 will also highlight the broader struggles of female directors and playwrights who fought to gain acceptance and move towards equality.

From the outspoken feminist work of writer and film-maker Jane Arden in the1960s to the  uncompromising output of Sadista Sisters and Cunning Stunts, the exhibition charts the growing emergence of feminist performance that gradually built real change within theatre.

Dr Croft said: “In 2024 Indhu Rubasingham is at the helm of the National Theatre and women writers and directors are everywhere.

“The change is huge, has been hard-won and should be celebrated!

“But we still need to work to keep hold of the progress we have made, especially when funding is tight and the arts are disappearing from the state sector.

“This exhibition honours the campaigns for change of that earlier generation and celebrates the innovative work they produced”.

Pictured top: Former production poster for Motherland at Oval House in Vauxhall (Picture: Susan Croft)