The Read Through

Boys by Ella Hickson (2012)

Achieving an authentic and believable depiction of young students being young is a difficult task.  As the sex, drugs and bin bags full of rubbish built up in the squalid shared kitchen setting I was prepared to have my inner Daily Mail reader harrumph and eye roll while muttering about National Service.  But Ella Hickson manages to blend the hedonistic nihilism with psychological depth and sympathy as the play generates a powerful momentum through impending personal and societal crises.

Men Should Weep by Ena Lamont Stewart (1947)

With the theatrical canon so dominated by male playwrights it’s vital to keep listening to those voices that had to shout louder to have their stories told.  Lamont Stewart’s play, written phonetically in a rich and vibrant Glasgow dialect foregrounds the female, working class experience wonderfully.  Bold and striking in its critique of the sexual politics of tenement life, the play –  much like two other trailblazing plays by women authors, A Raisin in the Sun and Rutherford and Son – manages to find a note of hope to end on, uncluttered by sentimentality. I was fascinated to read how bleak the ending of the original 1947 version was compared to this revision by the author for a 1982 revival.  A new edition featuring both versions would be welcome, addressing some of those imbalances in the careers of female playwrights cut short by circumstance and society.