ABSTRACT
The new work for the stage developed by playwrights who supported the Votes for Women movement in the first two decades of the twentieth century varied widely in style, form, and genre. Suffragist theatre professionals did not adapt or borrow from the traditional theatrical canon, but instead drew directly from the themes and activism of the suffrage movement to create female activist characters, played by activist performers, that reflected the multi-layered approaches of the campaign. This chapter will explore the journalistic and dramatic writings of prominent suffragist playwrights including Elizabeth Robins, Cicely Hamilton, and Christopher St John, and the parallels between their lived experience of the campaign for Votes for Women and the activist stories that appear in their suffrage plays.
