Voices silenced and stories unheard: vital plays from international female playwrights, curated by the Arcola Women’s Company.
Presented as stage readings, directed and performed by the Arcola Women’s Company (and friends), these plays demonstrate the diversity, beauty and complexity of shared female experience around the globe.
Tickets to this event are free.
Readings will be followed by a post-show discussions with directors and performers.
Endlings by Celine Song (South Korea)
Directed by Fumi Gomez
On the island of Man-Jae in Korea, three elderly women spend their dying days diving into the ocean to harvest seafood with nothing but a rusty knife. They are haenyeos – “sea women” – and there are no heiresses to their millennium-old tradition. Endlings is a real estate lesson from the last three remaining haenyeos in the world: don’t live on an island. Unless it’s the island of Manhattan…
Orchid – A Verbatim Play by Mũmbi Kaigwa (Kenya)
Directed by Verity Fine Hosken
There are so many reasons why a woman may suffer from fistula, a hole in the wall of the birth canal, but there is no good reason why that woman can’t be treated. A fascinating verbatim piece telling the stories of women survivors from Kenya, that premiered at the Manchester Royal Exchange in 2016 as part of the B!RTH festival.
Foreign Gifts by Nina Kossman (Russia)
Directed by Sophie McKay
Sisters argue for their way of life, the only way they know. Socialism vs capitalism: who’s the winner? A simple conversation over the dinner table creates a cold war in their front room.
Emily of Emerald Hill by Stella Kon (Singapore)
Directed by Amelia Sharp
Born in 1940s Singapore, Emily is abandoned as a child. Through her wit and cunning, she becomes the matriarch of a distinguished household and Singapore society’s ‘hostess with the mostest’ – but at what cost? Her story, played out in the decadent glory days of the Singaporean Peranakan community, celebrates the triumph of the human spirit to survive, succeed, and ultimately stay relevant in an ever-changing world.
Cinderellas Ltd by Zdrava Kamenova, Gergana Dimitrova and Anette Daubner (Bulgaria)
Translated by Atanas Igov and Nathan Cooper
Directed by Lora Krasteva
Three princesses from different countries, speaking different languages; all on a quest for happiness. But what happens when Prince Charming turns out to be a disappointment – or doesn’t turn up at all? When is it time to stop waiting and take matters into your own hands?
The Arcola Women’s Company rehearsed reading series Global Female Voices is part of Creative/Disruption 18
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