Book Review: WOMEN CENTRE STAGE: EIGHT SHORT PLAYS BY AND ABOUT WOMEN

Artistic Director of Sphinx Theatre Sue Parrish curates a new collection of short plays written by women and revolving around female characters. Commissioned as part of the Women Centre Stage Festival the plays presented in Women Centre Stage: Eight Short Plays By and About Women are designed to display a wide range of characters and themes that free the potential performers from any staging constrictions.

The selection includes solo pieces as well as dialogues and choral plays, all in the spirit of intersectional feminism. Nationality and skin colour are only mentioned when the story is strictly tied to the plot, like in Timberlake Wertenbaker's What is the Custom of Your Grief? while the majority of writers prefer not to state anything but the names of the characters.

Family and societal expectations are the focus of multiple works: How to Not Sink by Georgia Christou analyses different kinds of dependency and guilt across three generations of women, while Jessica Siân's White Lead explores the prospects and responsibilities of being a young female artist.

Parrish tackles mental health including April De Agelis' Wilderness, while Chloe Todd Fordham's The Nightclub is a direct link to Orlando's Pulse tragedy. A brief mood shift in the middle of the group is given by f-ing Feminists, a funny inquiry on feminism and the "woke" generation.

The highlights are certainly Winsome Pinnock's Tituba, a one-woman show depicting the role Tituba Indian had during the Salem Witch Trials, and The Road to Huntsville by Stephanie Ridings, about a woman who takes her research maybe a little too far.

A reasonably good choice of new material to be performed by younger companies, Women Centre Stage spans meaty roles for actresses to sink their teeth into. However, a more encompassing inclusion of playwrights who better reflect the dawning panorama of British theatre might have been the element to make the collection soar.

This doesn't take away from the plays, though, as they are innovative and imaginative. It ultimately will come down to the approach of their future directors, who are given complete freedom to leave their mark on these pieces.

Women Centre Stage: Eight Short Plays By and About Women is published by Nick Hern Books and out now.

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