This week! Blue Stockings

Everyman Theatre stage Blue Stockings, the critically acclaimed first play by writer/director Jessica Swale on Chapter’s main stage from 7 – 11 September 2021.

Tess, Carolyn, Maeve and Celia arrive to study at Girton College, Cambridge in 1896. Though just as smart as their male counterparts, they have not had formal education and are treated as unladylike and unnatural for choosing education over a “normal” life for a woman of the time. These pioneering women are referred to pejoratively as “Blue Stockings”.

The fight for women to graduate is less well-known than the one to vote but it had far-reaching implications with certain colleges withholding degrees from women well into the 20th Century.

First performed in 2013 at The Globe, Jessica Swale’s play has received much critical acclaim.