Working class women plays

[gkirrin]

I'm trying to reccommend some to students... but am finding it slim pickings. Can be different age ranges, but would love any top tips for younger ones esp that dont have huge casts...

[SilverFox]

Men Should Weep by Ena Lamont Stewart

[jek]

Steaming by Nell Dunn. The trailer for the film version can be seen here:

[cavocado]

If you're including one-woman plays, Iphigenia in Splott has a great young woman character.

Beth Steele's plays, although maybe the casts are too large and multi-generational for what you want.

[nick]

I assume A Taste of Honey is on your list.

Entertaining Mr Sloane has a great working class woman.

Do you mean British plays? If not, how about Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

And modern? If not, My Fair Lady.

Ah but did you mean working class women writers? That is trickier.

[Phantom of London]

A Taste of Honey was the first thing came to mind as Nick just said.

I wonder if Abigail’s Party, that might be a tad lower middle class though.

[anthony40]

First thig I thought of was Shirley Valentine.

In terms of musicals, Mrs Johnstone from Blood Brothers

Linda, from Death of a Salesman

[distantcousin]

Rita, Sue & Bob Too. - If you dare!

[nick]

I’ve always thought that there’s a legion of tv scripts that would make decent stage plays.

Ones that fit this thread:

The Liverbirds
Those two handers that Eastenders have done

I might have to give this some thought…

[jek]

Glasgow Girls by Cora Bissett which I remember seeing at Stratford East over a decade ago. Also Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour by Lee Hall which I saw with my then teenage daughter in 2016 at the National. Both feature younger women and don't have a huge cast.

[oxfordsimon]

Run, Rebel would fit

[duncan]

The Steamie

[LDN_Theatreland]

Di and Viv and Rose? Di is working class.

[jake]

At the risk of being obvious - Pygmalion

A Raisin in the Sun -currently covered on the 'Plays' board

Regina Engstrand in Ibsen's Ghosts is an interesting character.

Anna Fierling (Mother Courage)

Bit of a pattern here. The theatre likes its working class characters to be aspirational - which is, perhaps, one reason A taste of Honey is the first thing many people thought of:  Working class women, written by a working class woman who knew what she was talking about and didn't sugar coat it.

Joyce - Marlene's sister/antithesis in Top Girls is a down-to-earth type. And the play features several different kinds of 'working girls' in the Employment Agency scenes.

There must be more. I'll try and get back when I've thought more deeply.

[FairyGodmother]

Educating Rita? I think the play version is only for two though, and one definitely isn't a young woman so might not fit.

[FairyGodmother]

Actually, how young are you talking? There are some Jacqueline Wilson adaptions that might work.

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/plays-to-perform/jacqueline-wilson

[jake]

A few more thoughts:


Educating Rita (I see someone has already mentioned that)
The Thrill of Love - Amanda Whittington's play about Ruth Ellis

Juno and the Paycock - all the working class women are stronger than the men of any class (but perhaps check the reviews before you recommend the production currently at the Gielgud)

Ruth in Pinter's The Homecoming.


More generally perhaps it's not obvious but the early 20c can be fertile ground for strong working-class women - Hobson's Choice, Hindle Wakes, Rutherford and Son etc (though we're heading back to aspirational/middle class types with some of the characters).

Finally, as Inspector Goole says, we ignore Eva Smith at our peril.  She probably doesn't qualify, though, as she doesn't actually appear in the play.

[gkirrin]

Thanks for these. Lots of similar names coming up - any that dont feel like they ahve been done a lot? Would love to give them some slightly more obscure ones...

[jake]

Oct 25, 2024 12:08:59 GMT gkirrin said:

Thanks for these. Lots of similar names coming up - any that dont feel like they ahve been done a lot? Would love to give them some slightly more obscure ones...

It's hard to avoid recommending some obvious ones without leaving oneself open to the accusation of promoting male ideas of working class women.  But DH Lawrence's The Daughter-in-Law and The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd fit the bill at least in the literal sense of being plays with working class women as central characters. Peter Terson's Strippers is another - though I don't think anyone has dared stage that for a quarter of a century or so!

[ncbears]

Sweat by Lynn Nottage. Not exclusively about working class women, but they are the central characters.
Made in Dagenham - the musical?
perhaps Steel Magnolias?

[harrietcraig]

A couple of older plays (both written in 1931): London Wall, by John van Druten, and Becomes A Woman, by Betty Smith. I have seen both plays at the invaluable Mint Theater Company in New York, which specializes in reviving forgotten plays (and which has also produced the two D.H. Lawrence plays mentioned by jake).

Betty Smith is best known as the author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; the Mint gave her play, Becomes A Woman, its world premiere in 2023. The working women in Becomes A Woman are shopgirls, the working women in London Wall are typists in a law firm (not sure if they’re what you have in mind as “working class”).