Emilia: Play for study

Emilia offers a rambunctious, feminist, funny, inclusive, Brechtian gallop through the life of a remarkable and pioneering historical woman, Emilia Lanier (1569–1645). Playwright, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, takes audiences on a rollercoaster through Lanyer's life journey which includes love affairs, the loss of a child, resilience in the face of repeated bereavements and, in a pioneering achievement, becoming the first woman to publish her poetry under her own name in English in 1611.

The play celebrates women working together when the odds are against them and has fun with the claim that Emilia Lanier was the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's Sonnets; Lloyd Malcolm cheekily makes Emilia the author of some of Shakespeare's famous lines. First performed at Shakespeare's Globe in 2018, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, this fiery play inspired the predominantly young female audiences to applaud Emilia, encouraging them to challenge conventions and, if they encounter obstacles, to ‘burn the whole fucking house down’.