Suffrage drama

During the suffrage movement in the United Kingdom, eighteen short plays were published that have been coined women's suffrage drama[5] but these represent only a few of the numerous plays with suffrage themes, the majority written in support of the Cause, that have been identified. Susan Croft's 'Chronology of Plays addressing or supporting Suffrage Issues 1907-1914' lists 170,[6] a figure further supplemented by additional plays, discovered since publication, listed online.[7] Elizabeth Robins's Votes for Women and Cicely Hamilton and Christopher St. John's How the Vote Was Won are two predominant examples of suffrage plays.[5] Elizabeth Robins's Votes for Women was one of the first published women's suffrage plays. It was performed in 1907 at the Court Theatre in London.[8] Julie Holledge, British actor and director, wrote that Votes for Women “heralded the beginning of a suffrage theatre” and assisted in organizing actresses and “their involvement with the women’s rights movement and their dissatisfaction with a male dominated theatre, these women had begun to develop a drama that could express the reality of women’s lives...With the emergence of the mass suffrage movement in the Edwardian era, over a thousand actresses were thrust into the fight for votes for women. Out of their struggle the first ‘women’s theatre movement of the twentieth century was born.” [9]

The characters in these plays were realistic, middle class characters fighting for or against women's suffrage. These plays often featured female characters talking with each other about the suffrage movement and often broke the boundaries between class. Suffrage plays led to the 1908 formation of the Actresses' Franchise League that “provided the infrastructure to promote women’s endeavors on a large scale.” [10]

Suffragists used plays to create changes in social attitudes. Attending a play was a social and community event, therefore their message reached a large audience in a short period of time. Some suffragists would say, “a change in legislation was attributed to the production of one play.”[10] Suffrage plays were a source of optimism for the female suffrage movement. Suffrage theatre gave prominence to women's roles and issues for the first time and greatly influenced the women's suffrage movement.

Theatre played a crucial role in the United Kingdom women's suffrage movement. Pro-suffrage acting organizations such as The Actresses' Franchise League and Edith Craig's Pioneer Players formed alongside more political entities like the National Society for Women's Suffrage to campaign for the vote using drama and lectures. Only actresses were permitted to join the Actresses Franchise League. However, the AFL vowed to "assist all other [women's suffrage] Leagues wherever possible" by creating and performing "propaganda plays" and hosting informative lectures on the subject.[11] The United Kingdom was home to many of the premiere suffragist playwrights, including Cicely Hamilton (author of Diana of Dobson's[12]), George Bernard Shaw (Press Cuttings[13]), Beatrice Harraden (Lady Geraldine's Speech[14]) and Bessie Hatton (Before Sunrise[14]). Contemporary plays concerning the women's suffrage movement continue to be written and performed in Britain, such as Ian Flint's Woman (2003), Rebecca Lenkiewicz's Her Naked Skin (2008) and Sally Sheringham's The Sound of Breaking Glass (2009).[15]

British suffrage organizations and magazines also showed an interest in the position of women in India and suffrage performance in Britain included tableaux by Indian women, performed in Sloane Square, while Votes for Women reviewed plays like Tagore's Chitra.[16][17]

Although many suffrage dramas were written by British authors and playwrights, a number of American writers contributed to the overall body of pro-suffrage plays. Many of these authors were well known in their own right: Charlotte Perkins Gilman authored the recently re-published Three Women,[18] Something to Vote For,[19] The Ceaseless Struggle of Sex: A Dramatic View, and the suffragist/World War I correspondent Inez Milholland composed If Women Voted.[20] Organizations such as the National American Woman Suffrage Association viewed theatre as an effective way to spread pro-suffrage sentiment and provided suffrage dramas to professional and amateur theatres.[3][21] Other American dramatists who contributed to the genre include Miriam Nicholson, Elizabeth Gerberding, Salina Solomon and Mrs. Charles Caffin.[20][22] Although the suffrage drama movement didn't officially start until the early 20th century, there were similar plays being published by the late 19th century, such as Ella Cheever Thayer's Lords of Creation. Unfortunately many of the suffrage dramas circulated by the NAWSA have been lost, and the only evidence of their existence has been found in surviving order pamphlets for the plays.[4]