Women playwrights have written some of the most important plays of recent years: Caryl Churchill, Sarah Kane, Tanika Gupta, Lucy Prebble and Alecky Blythe have shaped the course of modern British theatre as much as anyone.

Prior to the late twentieth century, however, the voices of women playwrights were stifled, and their works largely kept out of the canon of important British plays.

This course will examine the history of women playwrights in Britain, from Lady Jane Lumley (who’s sixteenth-century translation of Iphigeneia at Aulis is the earliest known example of a dramatic work to be written in English by a woman) to Aphra Behn’s exciting and successful seventeenth-century career; from the blossoming of talent in the late twentieth century to the current explosion of multi-cultural women’s voices, such as Chinonyerem Odimba, Beth Flintoff and Ifeyinwa Frederick.

We will examine how plays by women fit in with or react against the important theatrical movements of their time, and how women’s voices have helped shape notions of political, cultural and personal identity.

Related study trips

All ASE students visit Stratford-upon-Avon, seeing shows by the world-renowned Royal Shakespeare Company. In addition, course participants attend two productions at local theatres.

ASE reserves the right to change the content of course-specific study trips where necessary.