Bad Girls and Blonde Bombshells: Lived Feminism in Popular Theatre

This project examines texts from a body of work which numbers fifteen performed across the country. The accompanying commentary identifies the ways in which 'Be My Baby' and 'The Thrill of Love' tell female-centred stories in a popular dramatic voice which explore aspects of women's lived experience. It engages with feminist theory and practice to identify the diffuse and sometimes contradictory feminisms within the plays. Dramatic structure is considered with close reference to realist and expressionist forms. The exegesis investigates their engagement with popular culture, the importance of music in the narratives and the methods by which they seek to reclaim women's history.

The commentary brings together academic mainstream sources to contextualize the study. Playtexts are examined with reference to a broad range of theorists, practitioners and cultural commentators including Eileen Aston and Geraldine Harris, Erin Hurley, Angela McRobbie, Graham Saunders, Lucy O'Brien, Carol Ann Lee and Lyn Gardner. The distinctive aspects of affective solidarity and feeling are identified as unifying elements of the play's personal and political concerns.