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Feminist Stages: interviews with women in contemporary British theatre LIZBETH GOODMAN WITH JANE DE GAY (Research Assistant), 1996 Amsterdam, Harwood Academic Publishers IBSN 3-7186-58828
This compilation of interviews with leading practitioners in feminist and women's theatre is an important source book for students and teachers who are interested in how contemporary political ideas inform drama practice.
The book is arranged chronologically in decades, from 1968 to the 1990s, with interviews drawn from both well-known and less familiar practitioners. Lizbeth Goodman, whose team of interviewers sought questions from actors, theatre company spokeswomen and playwrights, aimed to provide a voice for women working in theatre, and successfully encouraged all of the interviewees to explore their ideas about the sexual politics of drama. The result demonstrates the diversity of voices within the field, and shows how feminism as a concept within drama (as elsewhere) is resistant to a unified definition. This is, in many ways, the strength of the collection; not only does it stand as a testament to the many radical contributions made by women to contemporary theatre, but it also amounts to a witnessed account of how a wide range of feminist theories have influenced drama since 1968.
Interviewees in the collection are asked to tease out issues associated with sexual politics in the theatre, and with the definition of feminism as it relates to theatre work. In answer to the question, `does gender matter in the theatre?', there is a surprising array of answers. As Louise Page argues, no one discusses male playwrights in such terms. Nonetheless, this is not a book for those...