Just like the timeliness of The Pride (given events in Russia), this is timely too, with Middle Eastern & Central Asian attitudes to women’s education still a hot issue. Lest we become complacent, though, it’s only 65 years since women were allowed to graduate from Cambridge University, the subject of this play, set another fifty years before that. Jessica Swale, in her playwriting debut, has managed to produced a serious, well researched piece that has a light enough touch to be thoroughly entertaining too.
When you hear the attitudes of educated men to the new, late 19th century, initiatives of Girton College, you gasp. Phrases like ‘women belong in the kitchen’ are bandied around by a bunch of dinosaurs intent on keeping them in their place – a bit like the Taliban, really. The play is set at a time when the university senate is to vote on changing things so that women can graduate, as the opposition grows and moves outside the university establishment itself.
Though it handles a serious (and little known) subject well, it also has a very human side, much humour and music & movement which sits comfortably within its structure. It’s well paced in John Dove’s sprightly production and somehow suits the Globe very well, both in terms of period and setting. I think it’s one of the best new pays staged here.
Shakespeare’s Globe really is stretching itself this year, with six of the Bard’s plays, four international visitors and three new works, of which this is one, and it’s proving its versatility and popularity with a full house of predominantly young theatre-goers last night. Catch it if you can.
Leave a Reply