Elite Fabrications: Staging 17th Century Women's Drama

This presentation drew on our continuing investigation of previously unstaged drama by 16th and 17th century women writers. The presentation as a whole addressed the central themes of the conference in a variety of ways. For example, women's stories feature heavily in Lady Mary Wroth's "Love's Victory" and the plays of Margaret Cavendish; personal faith and material losses during the Civil War are a key issue in Cavendish and Brackley's "A Pastorall." Furthermore, all of our theatrical work so far has been produced within an academic context, offering a unique learning experience for the students who have taken part.

The session was comprised of three inter-related papers illustrated by video clips of performances staged in 1999/2000: "Cutting the pattern according to the cloth: re-creation & recreation in Lady Mary Wroth's Love's Victory" by Stephanie Hodgson-Wright; "Wee're become a fine thick Grove of thought': female devotion in Cavendish and Brackley's ‘A Pastorall'" by Alison Findlay; and "‘Fancy is the Minds creature, & imaginations are as several worlds': women's stories, women's worlds in Margaret Cavendish's plays" by Gweno Williams.