Review: VOTES FOR WOMEN, National Theatre

The National Theatre ends its series of rehearsed readings with Elizabeth Robins' Votes for Women. Written in 1907, the play dramatises the birth of the suffragette movement and, presented in 2018, shines a light on how slow the progress of equality has been.

Director Lyndsey Turner preferred a frontal approach to present the reading, with her actors coming on and off stage to make use of chairs. Script in hand, they delivered the poignant and chilling examination, from the retrograde bourgeois talk of its start to the hopeful and cathartic ending.

It's easy to draw a comparison between the patronisation shown by the men in the show to the more modern approach of many politicians in charge. The text is, per se, rather outdated and the lack of visual cues given by the essential nature of the performance makes it drag a bit. The company did, however, deliver a powerful image of how little we as a society have developed in 100 years.

Women might have gained political parity since then, but the points of discussion heard at the rally in the second act and during Vida's ending speech are virtually the same as the issues women are still facing now.

As pointed out by Sylvestra Le Touzel, Vinette Robinson, and Victoria Moseley (who played Mrs Heriot, Vida Levering, and Working Woman respectively) at the post-show talk, the pay gap and financial freedom feature prominently as well as what can be identified as the budding seed of what will become the #MeToo movement a century later.

The role of men was explored further too, with members of the audience questioning whether the character of Geoffrey Stonor (played by Zubin Varla) signs Vida's petition in the play to placate her and prevent her from ruining his career or because he truly believes in equality. It was conceded that there's an exceptionally fine line between opportunism and doing the right thing, and at times there can be a convergence between personal and political gain.

Dr Naomi Paxton - the suffrage theatre expert who curated the Dramatic Progress exhibition for Courage Everywhere - gave a comprehensive history of the play and its (nearly 100!) contemporaries, explaining that theatre and art in general were among the preferred means of activism.

Though progress does involve a long time to take action, she pointed out that there has been a cultural shift in recent years, which is leading to an accelerated change. It was recognised that this, however, needs to steer away from being a mere fashion and be allowed to build and build to act as an actual revolution.

An effective end to the series, Votes for Women served as a reminder that even though sometimes the world seems to be regressing, there's a generation of people willing to put themselves out there and take a stand against inequality and oppression.

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