Blue Stockings - Globe Theatre

Set of Blue Stockings

My last visit to the Globe this season, I had high hopes for this play, and I wasn't disappointed. Well, actually, I was disappointed in one thing: the weather. It rained continuously. Continuously! It started raining while I was queuing outside the theatre.

I enjoyed the play very much despite the rain. It was excellent; witty, fast-paced, exuberant and uplifting. It followed four young women ("bluestockings") studying at Girton College, an all-female College at Cambridge University, in 1896-97. Having had to persuade their parents to allow them to go to university in the first place, the women faced ostracism and disparagement from male students and lecturers, not to mention society at large. Men who supported the women's right to study could face negative consequences themselves, in the form of (for example) being held back in their careers. The play showed the run-up to and the outcome of the vote that was held in 1897 in order to determine whether women should be allowed to graduate from the university. As it stood, women were allowed to study and attend (most) lectures, but could not graduate. No women were allowed to vote; it was open only to the University of Cambridge Senate and graduates.

Great performances by all; many members of the cast had been in A Midsummer Night's Dream, so it was good to see them again. Off topic, but this year's Globe version of AMND was probably the best I've ever seen. On topic, I liked the relationships between the four women students and the fact that, while they were all highly intelligent, passionate and determined people, their distinct personalities shone through. The tension between openly promoting women's rights and the fear of being seen to be too radical and harming the progress made thus far was shown to good effect.

A variety of male attitudes towards the higher education of women were touched upon, which I thought helped make the play realistic. There were men who were completely and utterly opposed to women's presence at university, men who supported it, and men who were somewhere in between - some respecting the women's determination to study while considering them ultimately misguided; others simply bemused at why the women would want to study when they were unable to graduate.

Set of Blue Stockings with banner informing
audience that women won the right to
graduate from Cambridge in 1948

There was more audience participation in this production than I have ever experienced before at the Globe. When Dr Henry Maudsley (Edward Peel), retrogressive psychiatrist, gave a speech right at the beginning about women not being suited to intellectual pursuits, there was a reasonable amount of booing, followed by cheering when Miss Welsh (Gabrielle Lloyd), a female lecturer/Mistress of Girton (?) had her say. I enjoyed the audience participation. It heightened the atmosphere and created a sense of community/common feeling among the groundlings without becoming pantomimic. I wish it could happen more often in plays at the Globe; I imagine it's people's reverence for Shakespeare that holds them back during his plays.

There's a lot more I could say about this play...music and costumes were good, 1890s jig was excellent...Highly enjoyable play about what is sadly still a pretty current, relevant issue.