Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T19:57:04.494Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
Series:   Elements in Women Theatre Makers

Emma Rice's Feminist Acts of Love

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Lisa Peck
Lisa Peck
Affiliation:
University of Sussex

Summary

This is a love story but not as you know it. Should an academic study be framed in this way? Love seems an unlikely bedfellow for critical thinking. Watching an Emma Rice production and being in her rehearsal room you feel the love: a warm and generous welcoming in; a joyful celebration of the theatrical exchange. What produces this pleasurable affect and how might we consider its political potential? This Element positions Emma's theatre-making, a body of work spanning three decades, as feminist acts of love. Drawing on fieldwork research her practice is viewed through the critical lenses of feminisms and affect to consider its contextual tensions, its ethics of affirmation, staging of femininities and contribution to queer worldmaking. Mapping her work from this perspective brings to light her important contribution to UK feminist theatre; its love activism offering an emergent strategy for change.
Get access

Keywords

Emma Ricetheatre directingfeminismsaffectqueer worldmaking
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Women Theatre Makers
Online ISBN: 9781009287234
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 13 July 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahmed, S. (2003). ‘In the Name of Love’, Borderlands e-journal, 2(3). www.borderlands.net.au/vol2no3_2003?ahmed_love.htm (accessed 10 June 2017)Google Scholar
Akbar, A. (2010). ‘Mallory Towers Review – Emma Rice Takes Blyton to the Top of the Class’. The Guardian, 26 June. www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/jul/26/malory-towers-review-emma-rice-enid-blyton-passenger-shed-bristol (accessed 25 August 2022)Google Scholar
Akbar, A. (2018). ‘Wise Children Review – Emma Rice’s Spectacular Angela Carter Carnival’. The Guardian, 19 October. www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/oct/19/wise-children-review-emma-rice-angela-carter-old-vic-london (accessed 12 August 2022)Google Scholar
Aston, E. (2020). Restaging Feminisms (Palgrave Macmillan, London)Google Scholar
Aston, E. (1995). An Introduction to Feminism and Theatre (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Aston, E., and Harris, G. (2015). A Good Night out For The Girls: Popular Feminisms in Contemporary Theatre and Performance (Palgrave Macmillan, London)Google Scholar
Arendt, H. (1998). The Human Condition (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois)Google Scholar
Barad, K. (2003). ‘Posthumanist Performativity: Towards an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter’, Signs, 28(3), 801–31Google Scholar
Babbage, F. (2018). Adaptation in Contemporary Theatre: Performing Literature (Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury, London)Google Scholar
Bennet, J. (2010). Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina)Google Scholar
De Beauvoir, S. (1997). The Second Sex (Vintage Books, London)Google Scholar
Berlant, L., and Warner, M. (1998). ‘Sex in Public’, Critical Inquiry, Intimacy 24(2), 547–66Google Scholar
Billington, M. (2009). ‘Don’t Let Auteurs Take over in Theatre’. The Guardian, 14 April. www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2009/apr/14/auteur- (accessed 16 July 2011)Google Scholar
Billington, M. (2008). ‘Don John’. The Guardian, 20 December. www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/dec/20/kneehigh-don-john-review (accessed 12 August 2022)Google Scholar
Bowes, S. (2019). ‘Notes towards a Theatre of Assemblages’, Performance Research, 24(4), 28–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhebhe, N. (2022). Interview with Author, Brighton, 18 MayGoogle Scholar
Bhal, A. (2022). Interview with the Author via Zoom, 10 OctoberGoogle Scholar
Braidotti, R. (2022). Posthuman Feminism (Polity Press, Cambridge)Google Scholar
Braidotti, R. (2011). Nomadic Theory: The Portable Rosi Braidotti (Columbia University Press, New York)Google Scholar
Braidotti, R. (2001). Metamorphoses: Towards and Materialist Theory of Becoming (Polity Press, Cambridge)Google Scholar
Brown, A. M. (2017). Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (AK Press, California)Google Scholar
Butler, J. (2015). Notes toward a Performative Theory of Assembly (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, J. (2006). Gender Trouble. (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Case, S. E. (1990). Performing Feminisms: Feminist Critical Theory and Theatre (John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland)Google Scholar
Case, S. E. (1998). Feminism in Theatre (Routledge, New York)Google Scholar
Cavendish, D. (2018). ‘Wise Children at The Old Vic, SE1’. The Times, 19 April. www.thetimes.co.uk/article/theatre-review-wise-children-at-the-old-vic-se1-xdsjm2f9d (accessed 15 April 2020)Google Scholar
Cavendish, D. (2006). ‘A Shot in the Arm for the Junkie King’. The Telegraph, 26 September. www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/drama/3655572/A-shot-in-the-arm-from-the-junkie-king.html (accessed 1 June 2015)Google Scholar
Cixous, H. (1976). ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’, Signs, 1(4), 875–93Google Scholar
Clapp, S. (2016). ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream Review – The Wildest of Dreams’. The Guardian, 8 May. www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/may/08/midsummer-nights-dream-shakespeares-globe-theatre-review-emma-rice (accessed 21 June 2022)Google Scholar
Costa, M. (2015). ‘Troupe Therapy’. The Guardian. 1 December. www.theguardian.com/stage/2008/dec/01/kneehigh-theatre-cornwall-maddy-costa (accessed 8 February 2016)Google Scholar
Dale, M. (2022). ‘Britain’s National Theatre Director Rufus Norris Commits to Fifty-Fifty Gender Balance by 2021’. Broadway World, 4 February. www.broadwayworld.com/article/Britains-National-Theatre-Director-Rufus-Norris-Commits-To-5050-Gender-Balance-By-2021-20160204 (accessed 9 September 2022)Google Scholar
DeLanda, M. (2016). Assemblage Theory (University of Edinburgh Press, Edinburgh)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deleuze, G. (2005). Pure Imminence: Essays on a Life (Princetown University Press, New Jersey)Google Scholar
Deleuze, G., and Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnestota)Google Scholar
Deleuze, G., and Parnet, C. (2007). Dialogues II (Columbia University Press, New York)Google Scholar
Diamond, E. (1997). Unmaking Mimesis (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Dolan, J. (2005). Utopia in Performance: Finding Hope at the Theatre (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan)Google Scholar
Dolan, J. (1988). The Feminist Spectator as Critic (University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan)Google Scholar
Furness, H. (2017). ‘Shakespeare’s Globe Advertises for New Director with Passion for Its Past after Row over Modern Lighting’. The Telegraph, 27 March. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/27/shakespeares-globe-advertises-new-director-passion-past-row/ (accessed 22 June 2022)Google Scholar
Freud, S. (2018). Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (StreetLib Write)Google Scholar
Gale, D. (2021). ‘Kneehigh Theatre to Close after “Changes in Artistic Leadership”’. The Guardian, 3 June. www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/jun/03/kneehigh-theatre-close-changes-artistic-leadership#:~:text=The%20award-winning%20Kneehigh%20theatre,a (accessed 13 September 2022)Google Scholar
Gardner, L. (2021). ‘Emma Rice: Directing Theatre and Being Fearless’, Digital Theatre Plus. https://edu-digitaltheatreplus-com.ezproxy.sussex.ac.uk/content/guides/emma-rice-directing-theatre-and-being-fearless (accessed 7 July 2022)Google Scholar
Gardner, L. (2016a). ‘It’s Time for a Big Adventure: Emma Rice on Her Opening Globe Production’. The Guardian, 11 April. www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/apr/11/emma-rice-interview-shakespeares-globe-theatre-wonder-season-midsummer-nights-dream (accessed 16 July 2022)Google Scholar
Gardner, L. (2016b). ‘As Emma Rice Departs, The Globe Has Egg on Its Face – and No Vision’. The Guardian, 25 September. www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2016/oct/25/shakespeares-globe-emma-rice-department-comment (accessed 6 July 2022)Google Scholar
Gardner, L. (2022). ‘The Wild Bride Review’. The Guardian, 13 September. www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/sep/13/wild-bride-hammersmith-review (accessed 12 July 2022)Google Scholar
Gatens, M. (1996). Imaginary Bodies: Ethics, Power and Corporality (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Gregg, M., and Seigworth, G. (2010). The Affect Theory Reader (Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina)Google Scholar
Grosz, E. (1994). Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal Feminism (Indiana University Press, : Bloomington, Indiana)Google Scholar
Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina)Google Scholar
Haraway, D. (2003). The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People and Significant Otherness (Prickly Paradigm Press, Chicago)Google Scholar
Heath, S. (1985). ‘Joan Riviere and The Masquerade’ In Formations of Fantasy, eds. Burgin, V., Donald, J., and Kaplan, C. (London: Routledge)Google Scholar
Heller, M. (2020). Queering Drag: Redefining the Discourse of Gender Bending (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemming, S. (2019). ‘National Theatre Director Rufus Norris on Andrea Levy’s Small Island’. Financial Times, 19 April. www.ft.com/content/07a0e408-5f9e-11e9-9300-0becfc937c37 (accessed 16 September 2022)Google Scholar
Hooks, B. (2012). Writing beyond Race: Living Theory and Practice (Taylor and Francis Group, Oxforshire)Google Scholar
Hooks, B (2010). Teaching Critical Thinking Practical Wisdom (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Hooks, B (2000). All about Love (Harper Perennial, London)Google Scholar
Hooks, B (1989). ‘Choosing the Margin as a Space for Radical Openness’, Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, 36, 15–23Google Scholar
Hoyle, B. (2007). ‘Dead White Me in the Critics Chair Scorning the Work of Women Directors’. The Times, 14 May. www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dead-white-men-in-the-critics-chair-scorning-work-of-women-directors-6jn7025295h (accessed 6 August 2022)Google Scholar
Hurley, E. (2010). Theatre and Feeling (Methuen, Bloomsbury, London)Google Scholar
Irigaray, L. (1985). This Sex Which is Not One (Cornell University Press, New York)Google Scholar
Jamieson, K. (2018). Wise Children Mission Statement – Shared with Helen Comerford in an Email Exchange.Google Scholar
Jordan, J. (2003). Some of Us Did Not Die (Basic Books, New York)Google Scholar
Johnson, C. (2022). Interview with the Author, Brighton, 21 MayGoogle Scholar
Kellaway, K. (2018a). ‘Emma Rice: I Don’t Know How I Got to be So Controversial’. Observer, 1 July. www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jul/01/emma-rice-controversial-shakespeares-globe-wise-children (accessed 5 August 2022)Google Scholar
Kellaway, K. (2018b). ‘Wise Children Review – Emma Rice’s Joyous Angela Carter Adaptation’. The Guardian, 21 October. www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/oct/21/wise-children-old-vic-review-emma-rice-angela-carter (accessed 13 August 2022)Google Scholar
Kujawska, P. (2022a). Interviewed by the Author, Somerset, 21 JulyGoogle Scholar
Kujawska, P. (2022b). Interviewed by the Author on Zoom, 6 JulyGoogle Scholar
Lacan, J. (1949). ‘Mirror Stage as Formative of the I Function, as Revealed in Psychoanalytical Experience’. In Ecrits: A Selection, trans. Fink, B., pp. 75–82. (New York: W.W. Norton)Google Scholar
Lempiäinen, K. (2010). ‘With You but Different: Jouissance and Feminist Writing’, Nordic Journal of Women’s Studies, 5(2), 105–18.Google Scholar
Letts, Q. (2018). ‘Bonkers but Brilliant, a Very English Rice Pudding: Quentin Letts Reviews Wise Children at the Old Vic’. Daily Mail, 19 September. www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6292981/QUENTIN-LETTS-reviews-Wise-Children-Old-Vic.html (accessed 16 June 2022)Google Scholar
Lorde, A. (2017). ‘Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference’ in Your Silence Will Not Protect You, (Silver Press)Google Scholar
Lorde, A. (1984). Sister Outsider (Crossing Press, Berkley)Google Scholar
Maltby, K. (2016). ‘Emma Rice Was Never as Radical as She Thought She Was’. The Spectator, 26 October. www.spectator.co.uk/article/emma-rice-was-never-as-radical-as-she-thought-she-was (accessed 13 August 2022)Google Scholar
McCormick, L. (2022). Interview with the Author via Zoom, 23 MayGoogle Scholar
Moosa, H. (2021). ‘Review of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, Shakespeare, 17(1), 58–63Google Scholar
Morrison, R. (2016). ‘The Globe Has Been a Success Story and Emma Rice is Wrecking It’. The Times, 30 September. www.thetimes.co.uk/article/richard-morrison-the-globe-has-been-a-success-story-and-emma-rice-is-wrecking-it-xrrgxz3ml (accessed 20 September 2022)Google Scholar
Mortimer, V. (2020). ‘Tea and Biscuits with Emma Rice’. Wise Children Podcast, 11 June. https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/2980147 (accessed 16 July 2022)Google Scholar
Nash, J. (2011). ‘Practicing Love: Black Feminism, Love-Politics, and Post-Intersectionality’, Meridians, 11(2), 1–24Google Scholar
Owen, K. (2022). Interview with Author, Brighton, 18 MayGoogle Scholar
Peck, L. (2021). Act as a Feminist: Towards a Critical Acting Pedagogy (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Phelan, P. (1993). Unmarked: The Politics of Performance (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Price, J. (2016). Modern Popular Theatre (Palgrave Macmillan, London)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radosavljević, D. (2013a). The Contemporary Ensemble: Interviews with Theatre-Makers (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Radosavljević, D. (2013b). Theatre-Making: Interplay between Text and Performance in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan, London)Google Scholar
Rice, E. (2022a). Interviewed by the Author via Zoom, 16 AugustGoogle Scholar
Rice, E. (2022b). Interview with Author on Zoom, 30 AugustGoogle Scholar
Rice, E. (2016). Interviewed by Kerbel, L.,‘What’s on Stage: Tonic Theatre: Emma Rice’, 21 October. www.facebook.com/whatsonstage/videos/tonic-celebrates-emma-rice/10153865037575896/ (accessed 17 December 2022)Google Scholar
Rice, E. (2020). In Conversation with Kujawska, P., ‘Tea and Biscuits’ Podcast for Wise Children. www.wisechildrendigital.com/_files/ugd/f32126_36589dd75ebc4cc5ac8a4fa542cc8d66.pdf (accessed 20 July 2022)Google Scholar
Rice, E. (2016). Programme note A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Globe.Google Scholar
Rice, E. (2015). Interviewed by the Author in Bristol, 29 JanuaryGoogle Scholar
Riviere, J. (1986). ‘Womanliness as a Masquerade’. In Formations of Fantasy, eds. Burgin, V., Donald, J., and Kaplan, C. (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Rogers, J. (2019). ‘Cross-Cultural Casting in Britain: The Path to Inclusion 1972–2012’. Multicultural Shakespeare, 19(1), 55–70Google Scholar
Ross, I . (2022) Interviewed by the Author, Oxford, 29th JulyGoogle Scholar
Sedgwick, E. (2003). Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity (Duke University Press, Durham)Google Scholar
Shakespeare, W. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Open Source Shakespeare www.opensourceshakespeare.org/views/plays/play_view.php?WorkID=midsummer&Act=3&Scene=1&Scope=scene (accessed 12 January 2022)Google Scholar
Singh, A. (2017). ‘Come and Work at Shakespeare’s Globe – If You Can Put Up With the Cabals, the Connivers and the Personality Problems’. The Telegraph, 19 April. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/19/come-work-shakespeares-globe-can-put-cabals-connivers-personality/ (accessed 22 April 2017)Google Scholar
Spinoza, B. (1996). Ethics (Penguin Books, New York)Google Scholar
Simpson, R. (2022). ‘Brief Encounter – Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough’. TheReviewsHub, 27 July. www.thereviewshub.com/brief-encounter-stephen-joseph-theatre-scarborough/ (accessed 3 July 2022)Google Scholar
Smith, B. (2016). ‘Queer Goings On’, Programme note A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The GlobeGoogle Scholar
Solga, K. (2016). Theatre and Feminism (Palgrave Macmillan, London)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spatz, B. (2015). What a Body Can Do: Technique as Knowledge, Practice as Research (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Spivak, G. (1988). ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’. In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, eds. Nelson, C., and Grossberg, L., pp. 271–313. (Macmillan Education, Basingstoke)Google Scholar
Staff writers, (2007). ‘Are the Critics Strangling Theatre’. The Guardian, 15 May. www.theguardian.com/stage/2007/may/15/theatre3 (accessed 12 July 2022)Google Scholar
Staff writers, (2002). ‘Obituary. Theatre’s Defiant Genius’. BBC News, 21 September. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1628351.stm (accessed 16 February 2013)Google Scholar
Stamatiou, E. (2020). ‘Inclusive Casting Debunked: Towards Holistic Interventions in Staged Performance’, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Equality and Diversity, 6(2), 1–31Google Scholar
Sturrock, T. (2022). Interview with Author, Somerset, 21 JulyGoogle Scholar
Thompson, A. (2006). Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Tomlin, L. (2015). British Theatre Companies 1995–2014 (Bloomsbury, London)Google Scholar
Trenchfield, C. (2022). The Global and Local Appeal of Kneehigh Theatre Company (Cambridge Scholars, UK)Google Scholar
Tripley, N. (2018). ‘Wise Children’. The Stage, 19 October. www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/wise-children-review-at-old-vic-london–mess-melancholy-and-magic (accessed 8 August 2022)Google Scholar
Walker, A. (1983). In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens (Harcourt Brace, New York)Google Scholar
Wandor, M. (1986). Carry on Understudies: Theatre and Sexual Politics (Routledge, London)Google Scholar
Watson, I. (2004). Bacchae Review, What’s On Stage. Accessed in Falmouth archive (8 September 2022)Google Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Emma Rice's Feminist Acts of Love
  • Lisa Peck, University of Sussex
  • Online ISBN: 9781009287234
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Emma Rice's Feminist Acts of Love
  • Lisa Peck, University of Sussex
  • Online ISBN: 9781009287234
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Emma Rice's Feminist Acts of Love
  • Lisa Peck, University of Sussex
  • Online ISBN: 9781009287234
Available formats
×