It was called Women in Literature and History: it was just an hour - we wrote it all ourselves, Shirley, who runs the writers' Group, Ruth, an artist and poet, and me. We are all in our 60s and 70s, but reject being treated as old. Our saying is that we are more akin to Footlights Theatre than Bingo Night! We performed it on the small, curtainless stage in the auditorium of the Ipswich Humanities Centre, a council run building used by various groups including U3A. Our council is very good to us - we get it all free, so can get way with membership fees of only A$30 a year (20 quid) and free lessons.
It started with John Knox's tirade against women, being chased off by a woman with a rolling pin. Then a poem introducing the show, then an extract from Educating Rita. My last line was "Wasn't lady MacBeth a cow, eh? She really deserved to go to hell". Then the devil comes on, complete with horns and trident, followed by Lady MacBeth in bloody nightie doing an 'Out out damn spot' rap, then Mae West, still unrepentant, doing a sexy poem. Later we had Elizabeth 1 doing a triumphant poem about her achievements, finishing with "It was I, you know, who wrote all Shakespeare's Plays". I come on as Silvia Plath agreeing with her....it goes on with Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, Boadicea, Cleopatra (with Caesar and Anthony fawning over her), Sappho, and also Lady Godiva who was played by the same bloke that played Frank in 'Rita', Caesar.
Anyway, they loved it and said it was even better than last year's.
Oh, in one bit in 'Rita' Frank gives me a whisky. I gasped a bit at its strength just for effect. Afterwards, someone asked for a drink of that Scotch. I explained it was cold tea. Such disappointment!!
