Votes For Women [Drama On 3]

Zoe Tapper and Samuel West star in Elizabeth Robins's play, first performed in 1907 and written to support the cause of women's suffrage.

Admired Conservative MP Geoffrey Stonor is relishing his engagement to the ebullient young heiress Jean Dunbarton until a chance encounter with the charismatic Vida Levering, an advocate of women's suffrage, appears to threaten them both - not just politically, but personally too.

Produced and directed by Marion Nancarrow

Votes for Women is a suffragette play, originally performed in 1907 at the Court Theatre (now the Royal Court), which remains both modern and surprisingly controversial. Writer Elizabeth Robins, an American actress, was hugely admired by London audiences at the time, most notably for her performance as Hedda Gabler. A philanthropist and doyenne of the literati, she was also famed for having pulled a gun on George Bernard Shaw when he made a pass at her! Votes for Women was originally written as a novel - Robins having done her research by interviewing women about their lives (this forms the middle of the play, set at a rally in Trafalgar Square). It was turned into a play when the suffragette movement realised the power of theatre to affect public opinion and, shortly after its run in London, Robins was instrumental in setting up the Actresses' Franchise League.

Elizabeth Robins's 1907 suffragette play, starring Zoe Tapper and Samuel West.