I recently went to see a play called Emilia written by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, performed at the Vaudeville theatre. It’s a play following the journey of the poet Emilia Bassano in 1611. She wrote a collection of feminist poetry. It was one of the first published collections of poetry written by a woman in England. She is also known for possibly being “the dark lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets.
Emilia was performed by very diverse all female cast. Watching all those actresses up there on that stage portraying these strong fearless women standing up for what was right and what they believed in was truly inspiring. There were many laugh out loud moments while also having some very tear jerking moments. The use of incorporating comedy into such a powerful story made it educational while also being enjoyable to watch. The ending monologue was truly moving and had the entire audience completely entranced in her words and the message she had to give.
she is still almost completely erased form history accept from her supposed fling with Shakespeare which completely goes against everything she was fighting for. Instead of being known for all the amazing things she did she is known for constantly being in a much more famous and well known man’s shadow even though it is rumoured that he plagiarised some of her words. She wasn’t recognised or admired at the same level as men were at the time because of her sex which is absurd as her messages were juts as strong if not stronger.
I would one hundred percent recommend going to see this play, it was a fascinating and marvellous performance that not only opened my eyes too how far we have come in the sense of feminism and equality but also how far we have to go.
