This is quite a broad heading, as there are female playwrights from within our period, but also a lot of performers, producers, and supporters of the theatre industry in various ways. At the moment this page is a work in progress and dominated by writers, but there will be more material to share further down the line.

Full ‘Dramatic Women’ playlist on the podcast

Jane, Lady Lumley (1537-1576)

The Tragedy of Iphigenia, translated/adapted from Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis – Go to Iphigenia page.

Resources – initial exploring sessions, !Spoilers! a breakdown of the play.

Mary, Countess of Pembroke, born Mary Sidney (1561-1621)

The Tragedy of Antony, translated from Robert Garnier’s Tragedie of Antonie – a five act neo-classical drama, translated from French c.1592. It inspired, or Mary Sidney commissioned, a sequel by Samuel Daniel, The Tragedy of Cleopatra, which is detailed below.

Resources – initial exploring sessions, !Spoilers! and full cast audio adaptation below.

Elizabeth Cary (c.1585-1639)

The Tragedy of Mariam (c.1613) – Go to the Mariam page

Resources – initial exploring sessions, !Spoilers! and full cast audio adaptation in the playlist.

Lady Mary Wroth (1587-1651)

Love’s Victory by Lady Mary Wroth – We have produced First Look exploring sessions on this play, but there was a full staging produced in 2022 at Penshurst Place by the team of Professor Alison Findlay and director Emma Rucastle – who we interviewed on the pod.

We also have a discussion with Tamsin Lewis of Passamezzo, who produced the music for the show. There is more on that production on this website, and there is a full video version available online now.

Lady Rachel Fane (1613-1680)

Lady Rachel Fane produced a number of entertainments and performance materials that survive in manuscript. We are in the process of working through those texts, more to come anon.

This page is still very much a work in progress – we intend to include a number of other figures who will fit under our quite open title.