Women’s Right to Vote

The Suffrage Plays – Artemisia Theatre

Throughout history, theatre has served many purposes. The obvious benefit is to provide entertainment; but oftentimes a play will educate and a theatrical production may enlighten its audience. Such is Artemisia Theatre’s program of three one-act plays being presented under the collective title, “The Suffrage Plays.” These realist comedies, influenced by the works of of Henrik Ibsen, were written and presented between 1907 and 1914. They revealed the real issues behind the suffrage movement, including the double standards that women faced on a daily basis.

Combining familiar, everyday situations with relatable characters, the first half of the evening is a pair of short works by Evelyn Glover. Both of her plays, “A Chat With Mrs. Chicky” and “Miss Appleyard’s Awakening,” were written in the early 1900’s, when their productions were designed to help further the suffrage movement in Edwardian England.

In “A Chat With Mrs. Chicky,” Mrs. Holbrook, an upper middle-class anti-suffrage proponent, attempts to convince Mrs. Chicky, a lower class Cockney charwoman, to join her cause against women’s right to vote. What the high-and-mighty Mrs. Holbrook eventually learns is that the housekeeper isn’t some mindless dolt who can be easily manipulated. Although her lowly situation gives her the appearance of being a docile woman whose views can easily be changed, Mrs. Chicky proves to her guest that she’s a smart, determined woman ready to help achieve women’s suffrage.

After returning from gathering signatures for her anti-suffrage petition, the titular character in “Miss Appleyard’s Awakening” comes home to find Mrs. Crabtree, a sister proponent of  turning back women’s voting rights. However, as their conversation continues, Miss Appleyard soon discovers that Mrs. Crabtree’s views about women, and their place as homemakers, wives and mothers, is at odds with her own feminist beliefs. She, along with her maid, Morton, quash their guest’s arguments and usher the imperious Mrs. Crabtree out of the house with gumption and dignity.

Both works shed light on the women’s suffrage movement in Edwardian England, scoring points with Ms. Glover’s use of humor and hyperbole. But neither play can hold a candle to the pure poetry of George Bernard Shaw’s 1909 one-act, set during the suffrage movement, and craftily entitled “Press Cuttings.” Always a writer to employ humor to criticize England’s social problems, Shaw sets his play in “the near future.” The suffragette movement has grown so disruptive that martial law has been implemented in London to help maintain peace. The comedy focuses on three men: Mitchener, an older, seasoned General; Balsquith, the stuffy British Prime Minister; and an insubordinate, young Orderly, whose views of society are probably in keeping with those of the playwright. They are visited by two different anti-suffragists, with whom they banter, and who prove to be far more masculine than their male counterparts. Adding fuel the suffrage fire is feisty Mrs. Farrell, Mitchener’s opinionated housekeeper. Together the women convince the men in power to grant women equal rights, if only to save themselves from being overtaken.

Beth Wolf does a nice job of directing these three pieces of feminist theatre. There are times, however, when the volume and pitch are too much for the tiny third floor venue. In a couple characters, the actors seem to have concentrated more on their dialects than on what their characters are saying. The accents used by those not speaking in a standard British dialect sadly tend to overtake the storytelling. Also, since Shaw’s play is much longer and wordier, Ms. Wolf might’ve stressed the farcical elements more and upped the pacing a bit.

Wolf’s cast is quite good. Talented Megan Delay and the gifted Lucinda Johnston are like Thespian marathon runners in this production. Both actresses play completely different roles in each of the three plays. Although sometimes a little hard to understand, Ms. Delay sparkles in the first play as the shrewdly intelligent, verbose charwoman, Mrs. Chicky. In an abrupt turn-about, she becomes Mrs. Crabtree, the more snobby, upper class anti-suffragette, in the second play, who gets put in her place. But Ms. Delay’s finest performance is as Mrs. Farrell in the Shaw piece. She brings brilliance and a touch of reason to the widowed  housekeeper, a woman who, given the right breaks, could easily become the next Prime Minister.

Lucinda Johnston, whose resume boasts a wide variety of roles in theatres all over Chicagoland, is terrific. With ease and arched eyebrows, she easily plays the headstrong, often indignant Mrs. Holbrook in Glover’s first play. In the second play, Ms. Johnston is given bit of a break, playing Miss Appleyard’s attentive maid, who’s secretly supporting the suffrage movement. However, in the Shaw one-act, Ms. Johnston gets to shine as the bombastic Mrs. Banger. Cleverly costumed by Rachel Sypniewski in a long, tweed skirt, under which are camouflaged a pair of matching trousers, Lucinda’s sassy, gunslinging character could be an English kin to Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane or the Unsinkable Molly Brown. She’s a real treat in this male-dominated play.

All three actors in “Press Cuttings” are making their Artemisia Theatre debuts. Hats off, in particular, to Ross Frawley for mastering the enormous amount of difficult Shaw dialogue, as General Mitchener. He’s perfectly captured the essence of the Shavian male, a bumbling, essentially ineffectual man, who’s somehow found himself placed in a position of power. Mr. Frawley boasts a wide resume of theatrical experience, with each part leading him to this challenging role. He plays the General with panache and a professionalism that makes him an actor we’d like to see again in other roles. 

Tom McGrath is as suave, eloquent and beautifully composed as a Prime Minister should be. No newcomer to the Chicago theatre scene, Mr. McGrath masters with ease the quality and class of Mr. Balsquith. Handsome Vijay Sarathi, who was recently seen in Promethean Theatre’s production of “Bluestockings, plays the Orderly with spunk and spirit. Unfortunately, the dialect makes much of his lines difficult to understand, at times. And Brittani Yawn is sweetly composed and driven as Miss Appleyard. Unfortunately, the actress brings few variances to her portrayal of Lady Corinthia Fanshawe. She’s also a woman who’s totally in control of herself in every situation, but the actress she fails to imbue her with any special traits that would separate Lady Corinthia from Miss Appleyard. It’s as if they’re both cut from the same cloth. Ms. Yawn’s diction is lovely and her carriage is sophisticated, but these two characters feel like one in the same.

The three one-act plays that make up Artemisia Theatre’s season opener revolve around women’s rights and the arguments for and against suffrage at the turn of the century. The comedies both educate, enlighten and certainly entertain. The first act is comprised of two pleasant comedies by Evelyn Glover, but it’s George Bernard Shaw’s biting, far more sophisticated one-act play that comprises Act II that challenges and delights the audience. Although Beth Wolf’s production could sometimes be paced with a little more urgency, allowing the comic absurdity to shine with more brilliance, there’s much to learn about and enjoy in these three satisfying, seldom-produced plays.

Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas     

Presented November 1-24 by Artemisia Theatre at the Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago.

Tickets are available at the box office, by calling 773-697-3830 or by going to www.artemisiatheatre.org/plays.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.