British Theatre and Feminism from Clemence Dane to Gordon Daviot, 1921–1935

Abstract

This thesis focuses on largely forgotten plays by British women authors—Clemence Dane, Fryn Tennyson Jesse, Marie Stopes, G. B. Stern, Aimée Stuart, and Gordon Daviot—who wrote for London’s West End theatres between 1921 and 1935. It analyses and contextualises their plays to investigate how middle-class women’s struggles in the domestic sphere and feminist concerns prevalent during the interwar period were represented on stage. I argue that those playwrights, sometimes dismissed as conventional and apolitical, embody in their works a subtle yet significant form of feminism. I focus on plays featuring women who bravely challenge social conventions but partially or entirely fail to break free and, in doing so, I trace how these plays question the limits of the ‘so-called’ emancipation that women enjoyed following the First World War and the suffrage movement and illustrates a tentative form of feminism that appreciates the value of small acts of resistance while acknowledging their shortcomings. The middlebrow canon under discussion employs the drawing-room play’s conventions, which heavily rely on intricate marriage plots. In Chapter One, I examine A Bill of Divorcement (1921) by Clemence Dane and The Pelican (1924) by Fryn Tennyson Jesse and H. M. Harwood and tackle their depiction of divorce and its implications for women’s liberation. Chapter Two analyses Our Ostriches (1923) and Vectia (1926) by Marie Stopes and explores their portrayals of sex education and birth control. Chapter Three focuses on The Man Who Pays the Piper (1931) by G. B. Stern and Nine Till Six (1930) by Aimée and Philip Stuart and their representation of marriage and career as polarised choices for women. Finally, Chapter Four considers The Laughing Woman (1934) by Gordon Daviot and Wild Decembers (1933) by Dane, which feature creative women in history and the barriers to their artistic expression.