Cicely Hamilton (1872-1952) was a radical feminist and passionate suffragette who used drama to advance the cause of women’s rights. In Diana of Dobson’s, written in 1908 and revived by the Orange Tree in 2007, she exposed the enslavement of female shop workers. In this piece, dating from 1911 and still packing a powerful punch, she exposes the difficulty for Edwardian women of achieving true independence.
Her protagonist, Georgiana, is 29, unskilled and impecunious, and living with her titled aunt and her none-too-friendly relatives. Her only means of escape is marriage and both she and her family set their sights on the painfully shy Adam Lankester, who, after 10 years in Canada, lacks social graces. The play starts as light comedy but the real meat comes in the middle act when Georgiana, having captured Adam’s heart, is confronted on the eve of their wedding by a sense of shame and disgust at her own deceptiveness.
Hamilton repeatedly makes the point that until women enjoy equal educational opportunity and economic freedom, they will be forced into marriage. There is even a touch of a home counties Hedda Gabler about Georgiana, who shrinks from Adam’s embrace and his patronising endearments. But if the central act takes off, it is because Hamilton shows the natural dramatist’s ability to split our sympathies: there is a touch of capricious cruelty about Georgiana, however much we understand her plight, and an instinctive warmth and kindliness about the doting Adam. It’s just a pity that, in the predictable final act, Hamilton panders to a soft-edged romanticism.
Even if the play lacks the courage of its initial convictions, it is eminently worth reviving and Melissa Dunne’s production is well cast and full of attack.
Philippa Quinn perfectly embodies the desperation of Georgiana, who loathes her dependence on others yet lacks the capability to forge a career of her own. Jonny McPherson also catches precisely Adam’s growth from witless wooer into potential husband wounded by his future bride’s sudden brutality. Nicola Blackman as an imperious aunt and Simon Rhodes as her dithering husband lend good support and, while the play is not perfect, it reminds us that female playwrights were grappling with gender equality more than a century ago.
- At Finborough theatre, London, until 19 August. Box office: 0844-847 1652.
