International Women's Day

Today, on International Women’s Day, we remember some of the notable women who were part of the early years of Birmingham Rep. They were close to the stage as actors, playwrights, producer-directors and stage manager, but behind it too in less public roles.  These few represent the many women whose talents supported Barry Jackson’s vision of bringing the art of theatre to Birmingham audiences.

Actress Margaret Chatwin’s powerful talent for Greek drama encouraged Barry Jackson to bring Euripides’ classic plays to his stage.  Joining Jackson’s Pilgrim Players in 1907, Chatwin was then a founder member of his Repertory Company in 1913 and at its heart until  her death in 1937.

Cicely Hamilton and Elizabeth Baker were two writers and political activists whose works were staged at The Rep over a number of years. Both women were committed workers for votes for women and their writings reflected their political and social concerns: Hamilton’s, the inequalities of women’s lives and opportunities, Baker’s class, gender and working life.

Only two women produced plays at The Rep in its early years: Daisy Fisher and Maire O’Neill, both of whom had long artistic careers. For Christmas 1914, Fisher’s commission was a version of Cinderella for which she wrote the script, composed the music and lyrics and directed the production! A real success, Cinderella ran for over a month.

Maire O’Neill, a Dublin-born actor for whom J M Synge wrote both The Playboy of the Western World and Deidre of the Sorrows, directed and starred in a Synge play, The Tinker’s Wedding, on the Station Street stage in 1917.  Offended by its portrayal of a Catholic priest, a group of Irish playgoers brought the production to a standstill one evening by heckling and throwing things at the actors.  O’Neill was unfazed: she scooped up one item – a large, heavy key – shouted back at the hecklers that ‘someone won’t get in tonight’, returned to character and carried on!

‘The First Woman Stage Manager in the English Theatre’, is the title claimed for Maud Gill who joined Birmingham Rep as an actor in 1913, took over as Stage Manager in 1915 when WW1 conscription called up the company’s men and retained the role long after the war. Read her autobiography See The Players! (1937) for a lively account of a life on the stage!

But there were other women who we know little of but whose work was important to the success of The Rep:  Rochelle Thomas, first a Pilgrim Player and then REP Wardrobe Mistress until 1915, Ann Fisher ‘Head Dressmaker’ from 1913 until at least 1924 and Martha Jordan (‘Jordy’) who joined in 1914 as a programme girl, cared alone for the building during its closure in WW2 and continued to offer tea and buns to actors and audiences in later years.

  They all have their counterparts today and on International Women’s Day, we salute them all!