The Pioneer Players: Politics and the Art of Theatre

A conference celebrating the centenary of the founding of the Pioneer Players theatre society. Julie Holledge, author of Innocent Flowers: Women in the Edwardian Theatre (1981) will give the keynote address.

Edith Craig (1868-1947) founded the Pioneer Players theatre society in London. Similar to the much larger Stage Society, the Pioneer Players operated by charging an annual subscription to members and performed plays (technically in private) to its membership. Some of its productions explicitly challenged the censorship of the stage. The Pioneer Players was supportive of women’s suffrage and produced plays written by women such as Hrotsvit (10th century nun, said to be the first female dramatist) and Susan Glaspell, Cicely Hamilton, Christopher St John, Edith Lyttleton, Gwen John.

The Pioneer Players is also London’s forgotten Art theatre. From 1915 onwards it devoted energy to creating an art theatre in London, with productions in translation from the works of Anton Chekhov, Paul Claudel, Nikolai Evereinov, Torahiko Kori, Saint Georges de Bouhelier, Gerolamo Rovetta, Pierre Louys, Edmond Rostand, Herman Heijermans and Jose Echegeray.

Enquiries: Dr Katharine Cockin