ABSTRACT
Since the 1960s, there have been many feminist theatres developing and producing innovative work in the United States and around the world, while definitions of ‘feminism’ and ‘feminist theatre’ have varied from generation to generation, group to group and culture to culture. Of all the feminist theatres produced in this period, however, those of Britain and the United States contributed most to the development of contemporary feminisms and feminist theatres. Many of the most influential American feminist theatre groups have been written about elsewhere. Early agitprop groups such as the San Francisco Women’s Street Theatre were chronicled as part of the American Guerilla Street Theatre movement, for instance.1 The work of American companies such as The Omaha Magic Theatre, At the Foot of the Mountain Theatre, Lilith Theatre Company, Split Britches, Spiderwoman Theatre, The Women’s Project directed by Julia Miles and The Women’s Experimental Theatre have been discussed, from different feminist perspectives, by Case, Dolan, Keyssar, Malpede, Chinoy and Jenkins, amongst others. But British feminist companies such as Beryl and the Perils, The Millies, Clapperclaw and Charabanc are virtually unknown outside Britain, aside from the brief references to them in Michelene Wandor’s work, and in a few scattered periodical reviews. Thus, it seems most important to fill in the gaps by focusing in this and the next chapter on the development of British feminist theatres.
