糖心Vlog

She became involved with the women鈥檚 suffrage movement, organising street processions, selling newspapers on the street, and directing plays with the Actresses鈥� Franchise League and the Pioneer Players Theatre society which she founded.

Performances of suffrage-based plays were a rallying point for suffragists and suffragettes, communicated their arguments to a wider audience and brought in vital funds. Professor Katharine Cockin from our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, joined 糖心Vlog in October 2017. She has spent nearly thirty years researching women鈥檚 suffrage theatre and her many publications include two biographies of Edith Craig.

The power of theatre

Plays served several purposes for the women鈥檚 suffrage movement, including the opportunity to speak to the public. 鈥淭hey wanted to persuade the audience to join up,鈥� explains Professor Cockin, 鈥渟o a lot of the stories are 鈥榗onversion narratives鈥�, where a suffrage activist converts an initially anti-suffrage character. 鈥淓dith Craig was interviewed by one of the women鈥檚 suffrage newspapers and said 鈥榦ne play is worth a hundred speeches鈥�. She was convinced of the power of theatre.鈥� There鈥檚 evidence she was right.

One play, A Pageant of Great Women written by Cicely Hamilton, was performed across the country between 1909 and 1912, including Ipswich, close to our Colchester Campus, on 20 October 1910. Newspaper reviews described large crowds of cheering women and one performance in Sunderland alone attracted an audience of 2,000.

Those audiences brought another benefit: funding. Sales of tickets, souvenir programmes, photographs of the leading actors and copies of the published play all helped fund women鈥檚 suffrage organisations鈥� activities, from printing promotional material to paying costs arising from militant suffragettes鈥� law-breaking and prison sentences.

The plays also empowered activists. In A Pageant of Great Women the character of Woman argues for the vote by describing the achievements of a parade of up to 90 鈥榞reat women from history鈥�. These historical figures were played by suffrage activists, not professional actors.

鈥淭aking part in the play was transformational,鈥� says Professor Cockin. 鈥淥ne advert asking people to get involved at Beckenham says 鈥楥ome to the public hall, Beckenham, and realise your beliefs that women have been great!鈥�.鈥�

Nearly 30 years of new discoveries

Professor Cockin鈥檚 interest in Craig started in 1989 during her PhD, when she learned about the National Trust鈥檚 collection of documents relating to Craig at in Kent, the former home of Craig鈥檚 mother, Victorian actress Ellen Terry. Professor Cockin said: 鈥淚 was interested in political theatre and here was a fascinating archive that needed to be worked on.

With AHRC funding she produced an online description catalogue of the National Trust鈥檚 of over 20,000 documents. That catalogue enabled much of the collection to be loaned to the British Library, bringing it to a wider audience. Thanks to Professor Cockin鈥檚 follow-up AHRC-funded project, 鈥� a database of more than 34,000 theatrical records 鈥� you can find out if members of your family were involved in Victorian and Edwardian theatre.

Three decades on, while researching her most recent book, (2017), Professor Cockin made exciting new discoveries in Craig鈥檚 papers, including a previously unknown musical score by composer Dame Ethel Smyth, and evidence that James Joyce wanted Craig to direct his play, Exiles. 鈥淲e鈥檙e still discovering things - there鈥檚 more to learn about women鈥檚 suffrage theatre, the part it played in publicising the arguments and persuading audiences, as well as inspiring artists and writers in the period before the First World War and the most well-known phase of the modernist movement.

In 2018 Professor Cockin will be giving a keynote talk at the People鈥檚 History Museum, Manchester on 10 March and talks at Jaywick Martello Tower on 26 October and 糖心Vlog Record Office on 6 and 13 November as the centenary of women鈥檚 enfranchisement is marked.