New Exhibition Unravels the Untold Stories of Feminist Theatre

Nothing is as ephemeral as performance art. After all, its beauty lies in its momentary transience and so - despite the fact its very existence is commonly immortalised via the medium of film and photography - the same performance done twice results in two very different recordings, each entirely its own work of art.

Alas, just because the medium is one of absolute impermanence doesn’t mean those a part of it are. Something that is not fleeting? The role of women within performance art. And so just because someone’s presence has been relegated to the shadows (as Britain’s theatre legacy proves), doesn’t mean no presence at all. You only have to ask the women who have taken the backseat in all aspects, from assisting to writing and, more recently speaking, from directing to acting over the years.

Diving into the archives of all things women and theatre, London Performance Studios’ new exhibition Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-1992 curated by Dr. Susan Croft proves exactly this in its gathering of artefacts, live performance footage, and general all-round histories of the women who shaped the alternative theatre scene. Its venue - a known haven for queer creatives as well as research, celebration, and promotion of artistic processes - couldn’t have been more finely chosen for an exhibition that, while positioning itself firmly in the second half of the 20th century, sets out to do one thing: honour the women who fronted the second wave of feminism in theatre.

Exploring the radical beginnings of the feminist performance movement, curator Croft centres the seminal feminist play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven at the core of the exhibition. Since its inception in 1969, filmmaker and author Jane Arden’s story of the female experience through performance art was a turning point in alternative theatre. As one of the first pieces to be made as a reaction to the Women’s Liberation Movement in Britain, the exhibition explores the complex and direct effect of Arden’s work on feminist performance art. As a hotbed for unbridled creativity, second wave feminism spearheaded change in Britain, the exhibition honours this by focusing on the legacies of artists Geraldine Pilgrim and Natasha Morgan, whose interdisciplinary work in the 1970s and 80s is not one to miss. Right as the term ‘performance art’ was being coined, Pilgrim and Morgan - and their angry army of female contemporaries - were not-so–silently paving the way for equal voices within the London performance scene.

No stranger to exploring women’s history and voices in alternative theatre, the exhibition acts as an extension to Croft’s already fine-tuned research project Unfinished Histories. In collaboration with the exhibition, her project – which highlights marginalised communities within the theatre world – will be launching Radical Rediscoveries, a publication by Montez Press. Formative and groundbreaking feminist scripts will be memorialised, Including Ophelia by Melissa Murray, the lesbian retelling of Hamlet, and The Wind of Change by Winsome Pinnock, a tale of the Windrush experience of a Jamaican woman in 1960s Britain. With an introduction from Dr. Croft, Radical Rediscoveries will continue to inspire dialogue around feminism and performance, allowing for future generations to be educated on these pivotal moments and plays in history.

Above all, Radical Rediscovery: Feminist Theatre in Britain 1969-1992 is a mightily fierce labour of love, simply due to its dedication in championing the forgotten voices of women’s alternative theatre. Well, for as long as Dr. Croft continues her research, forgotten no more.

Radical Rediscovery at the London Performance Studios is open to the public every Friday to Sunday until 1 December, 2024.