In-between the plays which are all generally 30 minutes long, we hear verbatim accounts from female politicians, interviewed recently by Gillian Slovo: this evening features Baroness Shirley Williams, Edwina Currie, Ann Widdecombe, Jacqui Smith and Oona King talking mainly around their initial experience of entering Parliament and dealing with such a male dominated environment: Baroness Williams is the most illuminating on this, her account of pushing through a door that said MPs on it only to discover a urinal typifying an organisation ill-equipped to deal rising female participation. They are all entertaining to listen to, but Claire Cox’s Edwina Currie is just outrageous and quite possibly the best thing about the whole experience.
If you had to pick, I think Women Power and Politics: Then was the slightly better of the evenings for me. Now has a younger feel about it, but I found Then to be a more varied experience, certainly funnier and the emphasis on the parts for the older women in the ensemble was a personal delight, Niamh Cusack and Stella Gonet in particular shine out with some fabulous performances, Kika Markham is also impressive. The ensemble impresses across the board though, Claire Cox was a revelation for me and Oliver Chris and John Hollingworth also had bright spots. Rosa Maggiora set design and Matthew Eagland’s lighting is remarkably flexible, two movable walls evoking a vast range of locations with a minimum of fuss. All in all, a great night at the theatre and surprisingly universal in its treatment of the subject matter, this is society under the microscope here, not just women.
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes
Programme cost: £5, but covers both Then and Now and is jam-packed with reading material, an excellent programme
