London Performance Studios is pleased to present Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-1992, a new archival exhibition and events programme celebrating fifty years of alternative theatre made by women in the UK. The exhibition shares materials from the Unfinished Histories archive, and is curated by its director and co-founder Dr. Susan Croft.

The 1960s–1990s in Britain saw an explosion in alternative theatre made by women. Radical Rediscovery is an ambitious new survey that sets out to grapple with the nuanced and far-reaching social and political contexts behind this significant period of feminist theatre and practice. 

Radical Rediscovery begins with a series of vitrines displaying original ephemera, posters, documentation, and script excerpts from pioneering women that defined this period, including; Jane Arden (1960s), Women’s Theatre Group (Sphinx Theatre), Hesitate and Demonstrate, Sadista Sisters, Beryl and The Perils, Cunning Stunts (1970s to 80s), and Theatre of Black Women (1980s). This is underscored throughout by the stalwart community theatre groups and activist networks that made this work possible, including Women in Entertainment, Women Live, and the Women’s Playhouse Trust. 

The exhibition continues with two monitors sharing oral and visual excerpts of interviews from seminal women practitioners from the Unfinished Histories archive, including Sheila Allen, an original performer from Vagina Rex and The Gas Oven (1969) and now-psychotherapist Natasha Morgan, whose play Room (1981) will feature in the exhibition in the form of an installation. 

Radical Rediscovery marks the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first Women’s Theatre Festival, at Inter-Action’s Almost Free Theatre in 1973, taking this as a key historical moment in the development of women’s ability to make and access theatre. From here, three divergent aesthetic and political drives emerged: one which used performance as a way to explore womens’ experience in order to challenge stereotypes and social attitudes, another more experimental drive focused on finding new forms to explore the dreams and desires of women, and a third primarily concerned with campaigning against the underrepresentation of women in key roles in British theatre. 

This exhibition at London Performance Studios crucially highlights the complexity of performance devised by women during this period, and foregrounds feminist theatre from then to now as a vital social barometer and vehicle for political and personal expression, particularly in times of social, cultural, and political instability. 

A symposium of talks, panel discussions and a long table will close the exhibition. Open to the public, this will invite guest speakers, including: Professor Anna Furse; Paula Brown, producer of Women Live; Katrina Duncan, leader of Women In Entertainment in the 80s; writer and performer Rose Collis; and many more, to reflect on the ongoing resonances of the exhibition’s materials. Discussions will aim to connect the exhibition content with contemporary practitioners engaging with similar questions today, asking what has been learnt, lost and gained during this time.

A selection of the plays featured in the exhibition will also be collated into a new compendium aptly titled Radical Rediscoveries, and published by Montez Press. This will be the second publication in the Scores imprint, which publishes plays, scripts and performance texts co-commissioned by Montez Press and London Performance Studios.

Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-1992 is organised by Unfinished Histories as part of the Associate Artists Programme.

Special thanks to: Olusola Oyeleye, Ceri Thompson and Stefan Dickers at Bishopsgate Institute, Ann Fenn, Georgiana Klinke, Freya Croft Beringer.