Gender Equality in Irish Theatre?

Women, Ireland: 50.09% of population (2015).
Women, new Irish plays: 41% of cast. 39% of directors. 33% of playwrights (2006-2015).

Irish theatre is an exciting sphere of creativity, originality, and potential. However, one area in which it falls short is gender equality. Women are underrepresented in almost every role on stage and behind the scenes. Recent studies have highlighted lack of women in Irish theatre over the last decade, and the need for focused change in years to come.

The Irish Theatre Institute is a research organisation founded to develop creative opportunities and resources for homegrown performers and producers. In June 2017, it published “Findings Report of the Irish Playography: Gender Breakdown, New Play Repertoire 2006-2015” as part of its research analysis for PlayographyIreland, an online database of new plays. The report examined the gender breakdown of directors, playwrights, designers and casts of the 737 production staged between 2006 and 2015.

The participation of women varies between positions, but a trend emerges wherein women make up two-fifths or less of all roles.

The participation of women varies between positions, but a trend emerges wherein women make up two-fifths or less of all roles.

Of single-authored new plays examined, just one-third were written by female playwrights. This remained constant throughout the ten year period, averaging 29% between 2006-2010 and 31% between 2001-2015. 39% of new plays had a female director, with a slight decrease in 2011-2015 compared to 2006-2010. There were equal numbers of new plays directed by solo female and male directors in 2015, while disciplines such as costume and sound design reportedly “remain gendered”, with a significant female majority in costume design and male majority in sound. New Irish plays have an average cast size of 5, or 2 female and 3 male actors – 41% and 59%, respectively.

The fact that the ITI’s report looks at new, original plays makes the findings even more disappointing. Perhaps we could explain away gender imbalances in a Shakespearean cast, or men dominating the theatrical field at a time when women faced societal pressures, restrictions on university attendance and reduced ability to study literature or drama. However, there is no acceptable reason for 21st century Irish theatre to be falling short in its representation and inclusion of women. The question is are we not creating enough opportunities for women, or are women being discouraged from reaching out and grabbing them?

#WakingTheFeminists recently conducted a similar study. A year-long grassroots campaign committed to highlighting inequalities in Irish theatre sparked by the Abbey Theatre’s male-dominated ‘Waking the Nation’ line-up, their study analysed gender representation in ten of the top Arts Council-funded Irish theatre companies. It was designed to “interrogate what stories are told, who gets to tell those stories, who makes those decisions, who is represented, and who has the money” in theatre. In the study, “Gender Counts: An Analysis of Gender in Irish theatre 2006-2015”, representation of women in various positions across the sector came under scrutiny.

The study found that women are underrepresented in every theatrical career with the exception of costume design. Directors, authors (a term the study employed to encompass playwrights, devisors, and others involved in the creative process), cast, set design, sound design and lighting design were all discovered to be male-dominated professions. For instance, women made up just 42% of casts, 27% of directors, 34% of lighting designers, and 28% of authors. Particularly damning was the revelation that in seven out of the ten years studied, there were no productions by female authors performed at the Gate Theatre, by Druid, or Pan Pan Theatre. In order for men and women to be represented equally in theatre, the study found that gaps of between 8 and 41 percentage points must be closed.

Women accounting for 42% of cast members doesn’t initially appear to be a huge disparity. However, we must also consider what kind of roles female actors are appearing in. Although the study did not distinguish between lead and supporting roles, anecdotal evidence and personal experiences of theatre unfortunately suggest that women are too often pushed to the sidelines, reduced to minor characters while male actors are offered the spotlight. This isn’t the case for every production, but as long as men account for 72% of playwrights, we must interrogate the quality and integrity of roles and stories written for women. We need more women writers and directors in order to create honest and diverse female representation amongst cast members.

More recently, a report issued by the Irish Theatre Institute affirmed the similarity of the findings between the ITI’s report and that of the female-led #Waking the Feminists campaign, noting “similarities in the proportion of female creatives working in key artistic positions for the total plays produced by each company when compared with the new plays produced.” Additionally, a problem lies in the consistency of female underrepresentation in the field. Across the 10 year span of the study, women were continually subjected to the trend of being underrepresented on stage. An occasional imbalance can be understood, but a persistent deficiency is a significant cause for concern. In 2015, 83% of productions at The Fringe Festival – which over the preceding ten years had received €3.7 million in Arts Council funding – were directed by women. However, a mere 8% of productions in the Gate Theatre were staged by female directors, which had 10.5 million from the Arts Council in the same ten year period. This raises questions about how, and to whom, funding in theatre is being allocated. If money means power, then it has the strength to amplify the voices of the unheard – or to silence them.

Although the hard figures on gender equality may seem disheartening, a breeze of change can be felt sweeping the dust from under the curtains of Irish theatre. In July 2016, the Abbey Theatre published eight guiding principles on gender equality which have since been adopted by the Abbey board. These include a commitment to “achieve gender equality in all areas of the artistic programme over the next five years by presenting more work led by female theatre practitioners”, providing workshops for all employees examining gender equality in the workplace, and documenting progress made by gender equality initiatives in the theatre’s Annual Report. In October 2016, the Gate Theatre announced Selina Cartmell its first female artistic director. Cartmell began her tenure with a bang as the Gate premiered an exciting new immersive production of The Great Gatsby this July. In March 2017, Minister for Arts Heather Humphreys called upon National Cultural Institutions to have gender policies in place by 2018 in time for the centenary of women’s suffrage, although she left decisions on how to implement such policies to the discretion of the management of each institution.

In the words of Sarah Durcan, team member of #WakingTheFeminists, change in theatrical circles must come from a desire to “ignite all our stages with big complex messy conversations, using all our talent, all our genders, all our diversity.” Despite long-term gender imbalances, one can hope that Irish theatre is set to turn a corner in its appreciation and representation of women. It is imperative that women’s voices are allowed to reverberate on stage and across the nation.

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