"So why did people flock to the Pinter to catch it before we all vanished? A clue might be that many of the reviews were written by men who really didn't understand what it is to be a working mother or a child-free actress. She said one male critic had described a female character's lament about her vagina as unrealistic. We need women to write that, she said."
"Men are beginning to see the light. She said Waller-Bridge's writing had helped to shift public debate. When Phoebe Waller-Bridge wrote Fleabag series two, she gave me the most fantastic scene about menstruation and metaphors, which ripped through the internet and helped bring what people used to call female problems right into the front row, and even get laws changed."
"The Women's Prize for Playwriting was founded in 2019 to address gender inequality in theatre. Its organisers say women are under-represented as playwrights and in senior creative roles across the sector. Research published by The Stage in 2022 found that about three-quarters of writers working in UK theatre that year were men."
Kristin Scott Thomas said male theatre critics often fail to understand plays written by women and about women, citing divided reviews of Penelope Skinner's Lyonesse despite strong audiences. She argued many reviews were written by men who did not understand working mothers or child-free actresses and recalled a critic calling a character's lament about her vagina unrealistic. She credited Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag scene on menstruation with bringing female experiences into public debate and influencing change. The Women's Prize for Playwriting was founded in 2019 to address gender inequality, and research showed roughly three-quarters of UK theatre writers were men in 2022.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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