A play which sparked a scandal a century ago and is now being hailed as a feminist classic is receiving its first London performances in 30 years.
Hindle Wakes by Stanley Houghton tells the story of working-class Fanny Hawthorn, who spends a naughty weekend with a mill owner’s son and then defies parental expectations that they should marry.
Scripts were burned in the streets when it was premiered in 1912 and Oxford University banned its students from seeing it. But the Suffragette movement welcomed the theme of a woman’s right to choose her fate and interrupted a production attended by Lloyd George.
Jamil Jivanjee, 36, producer of the revival at the tiny Finborough Theatre in Earl’s Court, starring Anna Carteret, Richard Durden and Susan Penhaligon, said the story of inequality was just as relevant today. It opens tomorrow and runs until September 29.
“Hindle Wakes focuses on the hugely relevant topic of inequality between men and women. With the current stories involving the cabinet reshuffle and the Olympics being the first year to have women competing from every country in the world, the main theme of this play is still massively relevant,” he said.
Miss Cartaret, 69, who plays Fanny’s working-class mother, said the play seemed “extraordinarily contemporary” as some young women were still being forced to marry to maintain honour or secure wealth.
She said she expected audiences to hate her character for trying to insist that Fanny weds the wealthy man who has allegedly destroyed her reputation.
“It’s probably the first feminist play ever written and it’s a wonderful play. I think people will be very surprised and affected by it,” Miss Cartaret said.
The play, which has been filmed five times, is set in the fictional Lancashire town of Hindle and takes its title from the “wakes” or annual holidays.
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Fanny pretends to go away to Blackpool with a girlfriend but her secret tryst with engaged mill owner’s son Alan Jeffcote is exposed. And even his fiancee thinks the pair should marry until Fanny, played by Ellie Turner of E4’s Misfits, makes clear she has her own ideas on the matter.
Hindle Wakes opens at the Finborough in Earls Court on Thursday and runs until September 29.
