I was delighted to be invited to the champagne reception and opening night of Taking the Stage at MK Gallery.  A lovely venue for what promised to be a fantastic four day festival supporting and celebrating women playwrights and women in performing arts.

This is the third festival and the programme is packed to the rafters with plays, devised pieces, Q&A’s and many opportunities for discussion and debate.

 

The event began as conversation and fizz flowed amongst the guests, meeting friends old and new and discovering their connections to the festival. It was wonderful to see Joe Little again and to hear his story.  A chance finding of an article during a research project, he read about how fifty ladies took tea at the Dorchester. A conversation later and the seed was sown for a beautiful play, see below, Fifty Cups of Tea.

 

We headed up to the Sky Room and after an introductory welcome from Rosemary Hill, Curator, Producer and Director, Winsome Pinnock gave an inspiring and interesting keynote speech around women in the performing arts, women playwrights, rejection and acceptance. Winsome, the first black British female writer to have a play produced by the Royal National Theatre and an award winning playwright has many notable awards and works to her name including Rockets and Blue Lights, Can You Keep a Secret and Talking in Tongues. Awards include the 2022 Windham Campbell Prize. A respected and celebrated dramaturg, she is masterful at dramatizing characters through research, analysis, advisor role and adaptation. 

 

In a Key of her Own. 

The first play of the night by Suzette Coon performed by Jonathan Forrester – Schlesinger / Dad, Rebecca Rayne – Fanny Mendelssohn / Jess and James Percy-Smith – Felix.

Suzette has a long list of accolades to her name, a successful playwright and artistic director of Little Pieces of Gold theatre company, she has a strong track record of showcasing under represented writers and her plays have been produced in theatres all across London since 2010. 

 

In a Key of Her Own. A tale of two parts that intertwine cleverly and easily, we visit Jess, a 2015 A level music student, shocked that she is unable to find any female composers in the syllabus. She takes on the challenge to change this through a course of events using social media, challenging communications and a change.org petition stating “so that girls are freely able and inspired to become composers, to enrich the A level syllabus and to ultimately ensure that women’s works are valued, as they should be”. ( Based on the true story of Jessy Mccabe, who successfully petitioned to rectify the lack of female composers in the Edexcel A Level Music syllabus ).

Alongside, the story of Fanny Mendelssohn plays out. It’s 1846 and is unthinkable and taboo for women to be professional composers such was the social complexities of the time. This led to Fanny’s music to be published under her brother’s name and the play explores her fighting for her rightful place in history. So the convolution occurs as Fanny becomes acknowledged thanks to Jess’s petition and fight. 

The set is simple yet effective and the actors manage and merge their roles wonderfully. Percy-Smith is quite marvellous as the domineering Felix, with great stage presence he strides about with perfect pomp. Rayne is fierce and feisty in both roles, she epitomises the strong women fighting for their rights and places in society. Forrester is a gentle soul in his dual roles and is very likeable, he stands up for what he believes in and does the right thing honourably. The play definitely draws you in, holds you and we see how belief, courage and strength can, and does, make for effective change.

 

Fifty Cups of Tea.

A short play by Rosemary Hill, a celebrated curator, director, writer and producer with a tremendous background of TV, drama, documentaries and film making. Rosemary is recognised too for her passion in creating opportunities for women playwrights, directors and actors and also for her interest in mental health . She is a fully qualified psychotherapeutic counsellor and has her own private practice. 

 

Fifty Cups of Tea is a short play inspired by true events, in 1938 fifty women were invited to take tea at the Dorchester where they began a campaign to “boycott all nations that drop bombs on defenceless women and children”. Hosted by Princess Indira of Kapurthala, an Indian socialite, princess, WW2 political journalist working with George Orwell and radio presenter at BBC Radio, the campaign and the play explores female protest and resistance and the power that can hold for change. 

Again, simple staging but very effectively focussing on each character as we got a little taste of the events at the tea event. Not a tea party mind, a meeting of the first signatories under The League for the Boycott of Aggressor Nations. Every woman shone in the spotlight in this play and in every woman we can see ourselves. The want to stand up and be heard, be seen and be effective rang true and the actors were believable and strong in their portrayals. 

 

The evening was inspiring, full of strength and commitment to women in the performing arts, welcoming and thoroughly engaging. Familiar faces and newcomers to the festival came together and connected in the most convivial manner.  

 

Rosemary Hill – Curator, Producer and Director.

Darren Walker – Co-Producer

Michelle Lockwood – Stage Manager

April Pardoe – Project Administrator

Tam Gilbert – Access Consultant 

 

Credits to all the actors and teams who made this enjoyable event such a success.