The Same Old Story

The Plays Notes

Lady Geraldine's Speech by Beatrice Haraden

​Published in 1911 by the English Women's Suffrage League. Beatrice Haradan was the author of many novels, and was persuaded to write for the women's suffrage theatre by Inez Bensusan, in charge of the Actresses' Franchise League play department.

The Apple by Inez Bensusan

​An Australian actress, writer, and feminist, Inez Bensusan was the leading light behind the women's suffrage theatre in England. She commisioned plays that would be both entertaining and "political", and her own play is no exception

A Chat with Mrs. Chicky by Evelyn Glover

First performed at the Rehearsal Theatre, London, 1912, with Inez Bensusan as Mrs. Chicky. Evelyn Glover was a feminist writer who was interested in dramatising the arguments of working-class women in particular, because one criticism that was levelled at the women's movement was that only middle-class women would benefit from sexual equality and the vote.

How the West Was Won by Cicely Hamilton and Christopher. St John (Christabel Marshall)

When this play was first performed (1909) the vote was a long way from being won by women in England. But the economic argument proposed by the play to get the vote was typical of Cicely Hamilton who had written a best-selling book called Marriage as a Trade. The play was a smash hit at its first performance at the Royalty Theatre in London.

The Same Old Story by Franca Rame and Dario Fo

The authors are noted for their collaboration on important feminist and political theatre in Italy during the past twenty years, in which a wild popular comedy based on the Commedia dell'arte plays a large part.

Songs Used

The March of the Woman

This was the Suffragette song. Its words were written by Cicely Hamilton and the music by Dame Ethel Smyth. It was first sung at an Albert Hall meeting in 1911.

She is More to be Pitied than Censured

Pathetic song and chorus. Words & Music by W.M. Grey, 1898.