By Pierangelly Del Rio

100 years ago, the Representation of the People Act of 1918 was passed, granting about 8.4 million women the right to vote in Britain. To celebrate this landmark event, the People’s History Museum presented ‘Wonder Women’, an ambitious programme of exhibitions, festivals, events and a new display of banners telling the story of how people have fought for representation.

‘The Drama of the Suffrage Movement’, one of the many events running throughout March, featured a day of presentations, creative workshops, films and performances brought together by Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Salford and the People’s History Museum.

One of the event’s organisers, Dr. Emma Liggins, Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Manchester Met, spoke to Humanity Hallows about the event series. She said, “We wanted to celebrate the theatricality and the performativity of this movement. So, not just plays that were going on, it was other kinds of performances, like processions, marches, pageants, public speeches, songs and the use of costumes.” She added, “We hope that this will become an innovative event, and that we will contribute to this. Also to think about how the Suffrage movement is inspiring dramatists of the future.”

The event gathered a diverse crowd including members of the public, students and academics from different universities. They were welcomed at the museum’s foyer with Suffrage performances by University of Salford students. Representing notorious suffragists figures such as Constance Markievicz and Ellen Wilkinson, the actors delivered passionate speeches demanding women’s right to vote, giving a taste of the vigour and performativity which characterised the movement.

Afterwards, the public was invited to the Engine Hall for the first presentation ‘Dramatising Women’s Suffrage: Edith Craig and the Art of the Theatre’, by University of Essex Professor Katherine Cockin. Professor Cockin talked about her research and publications on Edith Craig’s life and legacy. Craig, as many other women involved in the movement, used her talents and creativity to persuade audiences about women’s right to vote. How the Vote was won and A Pageant of Great Women, are among the many plays written and directed by Craig. Professor Cockin explained the message such productions tried to convey and the arguments in favour and against the womens’ vote, which ultimately influenced their content. She commented: “I hope we’re going to be really inspired and changed by what we hear about throughout the course of the day, thinking about how women’s suffrage movement galvanised people to believe that the world could be changed for the better.”

Support for the cause was also endorsed by actors, as explored in the talk ‘The work, networks, and legacy of the actresses’. Dr Naomi Paxton, spoke about The Actresses Franchise League (AFL), whose members used performance to communicate ideas of the movement on stages, streets and platforms. AFL members joined marches, often following strict dress codes and staging performances. “With words, either their own or given by others, each league member therefore, becomes a powerful visual symbol, of both her profession and her sex, a symbol of performative body contributing directly with her presence to the larger performative body of the league,” Dr. Praxton commented.

After lunch, some of the contemporary creative responses to the Suffrage movement were presented. This included the performance of Julie Wilkinson’s play What the Suffragettes did Next: Dramatising Evelyn Sharp, a work in progress which focuses on Sharp’s unpublished diaries. The public was witness of a powerful performance of Sharp’s 1921 journalistic mission to report on the operation to bring aid to millions of suffering Russians. It was followed by the discussion and presentation of the trailer for the short film March, directed by Anna Birch. The project was concerned about the role of walking and how location and history work together to teach us about the past. Birch’s approach was the deconstruction of the text by sharing it through film, performance and publication.

Attendees had also the option of joining a creative writing workshop. Experts in creative, Joanne Selley and Angi Holden led the session and encouraged participants to write their own prose or poetry inspired by the Suffrage movement.

A vital aspect of the Suffrage movement were banners, as discussed in the final presentation of the day ‘The procession was like a medieval festival, vivid with simple grandeur’. Author Elizabeth Crawford, showed images of striking 20^th century banners and explained the methods used to create them and their political significance.

The event concluded with a wine reception in the foyer, accompanied by suffrage songs such as ‘Rise up Women!’ and ‘Woman This and Woman That’. Attendees shared their opinion about the day, highlighting how different and insightful it was. “You realise how little you knew,” one member of the audience commented.

The Drama of the Suffrage Movement served not only to commemorate the theatricality and creativity of the movement, but also provided and opportunity to observe the impact of the suffrage legacy in education and contemporary manifestations of art.