Women Experimenting in Theatre: Early Modern to Contemporary

This collection of essays, covering a broad historical range, shows that women working in theatre and drama since the time of Aphra Behn have been engaged in pushing the boundaries of conventional representation and dramaturgical convention. Collectively the authors show that women have used performing spaces as a channel for both political and personal radicalism - one that has demanded and celebrated experimentalism as a kind of survival in a male dominated world.

Kate Aughterson has written widely on women’s writing and early modern drama, including, editing The Luckey Chance (2021); Renaissance Woman (1995), The English Renaissance: An Anthology (1998); John Webster: The Plays (2000), Aphra Behn: The Comedies (2003), Shakespeare: The Late Plays (2013), with Katy Shaw, Jim Crace: Into the Wilderness (2017); with Ailsa Grant Ferguson, Shakespeare and Gender (2020) and with Deborah Philips, Women and Experimental Fiction: Early Modern to Contemporary; with Jess Moriarty, Socially Engaged Creative Practice (2024) and Performing Maternities (2024).

Deborah Philips has written extensively on women’s writing and cultural history. Her books include: And This is My Friend Sandy: Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend, London Theatre and Gay Culture (2021), Fairground Attractions (2012), Writing Romance: Women’s Fiction (2006/2014), The Trojan Horse (2013) with Garry Whannel and Brave New Causes (1998) with Ian Haywood. She is the co-editor, with Kate Aughterson of Women Writers and Experimental Narratives: Early Modern to Contemporary (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).