Bleeding Hell! Women in Theatre!

Abstract

The over representation of women in professional theatre is clearly documented, and yet contemporary British and Irish stages still marginalise the work of women and work about women, as the Waking the Feminist Movement (2017) in Ireland highlighted. Joyce Branagh and Amy Bonsall received Arts Council funding in 2013 to develop an idea for a play, which was inspired by the female experience of the gynaecological condition endometriosis. The working title for the play was Bleeding Hell! Put simply, research and personal experience indicated that there was a desperate need for a production aimed at both women and men that opened a dialogue about endometriosis. While getting funding and support for the initial phase of the work was successful, it proved almost impossible to gain the necessary industry and funding support to allow for the play to be completed and to mount a full production. This chapter explores the reality of how women and their stories are, or rather are more often than not, supported, developed and seen on British and Irish stages. An edited interview of Joyce Branagh, conducted by Amy Bonsall offers a first-hand account of being a writer, and writing about issues that have women at their core within the current theatre landscape. The chapter will illustrate the significant hurdles that face female theatre makers making female-centered work about ‘taboo’ subjects such as menstruation and gynaecological conditions in contemporary Britain. Funding and lack of open dialogue with artistic directors are just two significant factors that prevent such work being made in the mainstream. The only alternative is women working out of goodwill. A familiar and ancient trope that comes with ‘women’s work’!