Suffrage Centennials

A one-hour stage adaptation of “The Yellow Wallpaper” brings to audiences a profoundly influential short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman played by Michèle LaRue. This candidate for programming during suffrage celebrations and centennials provides modern audiences with a real feeling for what it was like for many women before the turn of the 20th century. Gilman’s tale continues to chill readers today, dazzling feminists and historians, mystery and horror story enthusiasts alike, with its wit, suspense, and superlative style. This faithful dramatization, directed by Warren Kliewer, is fully staged and performed in period costume. Atmospheric lighting and Victorian music evoke the period and conjure up the ever-changing yellow wallpaper. The production is most effective in a small theatre with a sound system and versatile lighting. Two more-simply staged and less-expensive versions are also available.

The Yellow Wallpaper runs one hour, plus an optional post-performance talk back. The Yellow Wallpaper has been popular with college and university Women’s/Gender Studies programs. It is recommended, as well, for high school students. This extraordinary story and performance can stimulate discussions about imagination vs. science, the place of women in society and marriage, and more. A study guide is also available. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” was published in 1891 in New England Magazine. For more information: Michèle LaRue, 201-863-6436, ruedelarue@aol.com, http://michelelarue.com

On May 25, 2014 it’s the centennial observance of the passing of the Government of Ireland Act that not only addressed the so-called “Irish Question,” but it also made women’s suffrage possible. The public record of women voting in Ireland can be traced back to the 1860s, and an article published in “Woman and her Sphere” by Elizabeth Crawford (researcher, writer, dealer in books and ephemera) is worth linking to directly because it’s a wonderful way to touch into everything you ever wanted to know and then some.

Elizabeth Crawford publishes a list of books available for sale that has suff buffs (and others) drooling. And when it comes to certain suffrage history, her articles contain a mountain of information that makes all the time spent reading worth reading it. Her article “We Believe That The Rousing of the Irish People Had Best Be Left to Irish Women” is one such example.

The article is lengthy and detailed, though it can be summed up in one of Crawford’s sentences: “The conflict between nationalism and suffragism haunted the Irish suffrage campaign.” But this sentence leaves out many fascinating facts. Did you know that  Hanna Sheey Skeffington and others broke windows of government buildings in Dublin? I didn’t. Four received prison sentences and they went on a hunger strike. The story includes the background of how the English militant suffragettes spread their organizing efforts to Ireland. There are some hair-raising tales, including a hatchet with a suffrage message that one suffrage activist threw into the coach of the English prime minister on his visit to Ireland. Winning the vote in both Ireland and England required more than ladies’ tea receptions. It was uphill all the way, and a suffrage centennial is a perfect time to appreciate what may appear today to be a simple victory. Thank you, Elizabeth Crawford, for the persistence that’s involved in some of your history gems.

“In 1922, six years before women in Britain, Irish women over 21 were granted the vote, albeit reluctantly, by the Irish parliament. In the final stage of the Irish suffrage campaign it was most certainly the effort of Irishwomen, still led by Hanna Sheey Skeffington, that achieved the final victory.” Further reading: E. Crawford, The Women’s Suffrage Movement in Britain and Ireland: a regional survey, Routledge, 2008 (paperback).

Photo: Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, from Crawford’s article, a must read!

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