Shelagh Stephenson Libri

What you haven't realised is that I sew to aid my thought processes. Look – needle – stab – stitch – thought. Needle – stab – stitch – thought. So next time you see a woman demurely sewing a sampler, be very, very wary. God knows what she may be planning. Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) was a social theorist who is often credited as being the first female sociologist. In Harriet Martineau Dreams of Dancing, Shelagh Stephenson depicts the great writer in a period of convalescence, living as an invalid by the sea in Tynemouth. Shut off from her usual society, Harriet is visited by women of the locale; Impie, a recent widow who is using her new-found marital freedom to paint murals on the ceilings of her family home; Beulah, the daughter of a woman who'd been sold into slavery and escaped; and Jane, the housemaid, whose unfeted and unexpected gifts lift her out of domestic servitude and could help Harriet out of illness. Harriet Martineau is a play about female self-reliance in a time of patriarchal dominance. Written by Shelagh Stephenson, it premiered at Live Theatre, Newcastle, in winter 2016.

In 1799, on the eve of a new scentury, the house buzzes with scientific experiments, furtive romance and farcical amateur dramatics. 1999, and in a world of scientific chaos, cloning and genetic engineering, the cellar of the same house reveals a dark secret, buried for 200 years.

This play opened at the Hampstead Theatre in the summer of 1996 and became an instant hit. Three sisters and their partners gather at the home of their recently dead mother and revisit the past in poignant and often hilarous way Also included is Five Kinds of Silence.

Published to tie-in with the world premier at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in March 2005.

A Student Edition of Shelagh Stephenson's award-winning play, complete with full introduction, commentary and questions for study.