Epilogue

Abstract

In a book such as this it is impossible to reach a definitive conclusion. There is no conventional ending, final result, or declamatory resolution. Like a Restoration actress returning to the stage for her parting words to the audience, I return briefly in postmodern costume to address significant aspects of recent theatrical work, aware that as soon as I itemise and delineate new plays by women my list immediately becomes out of date. Nevertheless, the following discussion locates within contemporary theatre productions and plays by women the theatrical images treated within the body of this book. In no way does this attempt to be comprehensive, but in a book that has focused entirely on the importance of historical material it is essential to leave you, the reader, aware that women in theatre today are active, productive, questioning.

The same fearful prediction, that women would be turned into men, has been made before each successive step of the equal rights movement.

(Alice Stone Blackwell, suffragette, 1893)

My only problem is finding a way to play my fortieth fallen female in a different way from my thirty-ninth.

(Barbara Stanwyck, Hollywood actress, 1953)