Kobiety z teatralnego „marginesu”

Abstract

In Great Britain of the 1970s and 80s the lack of female representation in the traditional theatre, of suitable characters, good, big roles, and above all the lack of women’s experience as a part of the presented world resulted in the phenomenon of actresses leaving the existing environment and creating theatre groups functioning alongside the rigid structures of the subsidized and commercial theatre. Rejecting the usual principle of male domination in the theatre, entirely female or mixed groups chose a form of group work without delegating roles and functions (group creation), they preferred the principle of equal responsibility sharing. Alternative women’s collectives could defy the established order at the world view, organizational and aesthetic level. Theatres introduced subjects that had not been raised before into the sphere of social discussion. At the same time a variety of working methods transferred from the field of the feminist research methodology penetrated into theatre groups. They were under the impact of the idea of consciousness raising groups. The subject of their interest was women’s personal experience. The experimental analysis, based on the mutual cooperation between the researched and the researcher, underlay many creations realized within the English feminist fringe theatre. The characteristic way of text creation and the performance based on it was a counterpart of the well-known method of collaborative research based on the feminist reflection. This theatre first manifested the need to reveal the scale of oppression which women face in the patriarchal society; later it expressed a protest against the existing reality, and after the period of rebellion it pointed to the ultimate objective of changes in the society, which would be a vision of the woman-centred world, imbued with values of feminine culture. Radicalism of some statements evoked strong criticism among a part of the audience and some British journalists.