Lesson Plans

Five Great Plays … with progressive approaches to feminist ideals

Each issue of D&T, we bring you five suggested plays for studying or mounting with your students. This issue Isabelle Tyner suggests a range of plays that present strong female characters and progressive storylines.

Age recommendation: 12+

Cast: 9f, 4m

Synopsis: Two worlds collide. In 1862 Brighton, we meet Sarah Bonetta, an African girl who has been adopted by Queen Victoria. Two guests arrive for a tea party exposing the racism that is deeply ingrained in the institution. Fast forward to the present, Sarah is a black middle-class woman in Cheshire with her husband and child, whose day is interrupted by two neighbours echoing prejudices from the first scene and confessing their betrayal of the couple to the police. In the final scene, both Sarahs have tea with Queen Victoria, as the modern Sarah tries to her past self to understand the prejudices they face as black women, despite her royal upbringing.

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