{"id":279324,"date":"2026-02-11T21:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T21:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279324\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T21:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T21:22:07","slug":"kristin-scott-thomas-says-male-theatre-critics-fail-to-grasp-plays-about-women-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/279324\/","title":{"rendered":"Kristin Scott Thomas says male theatre critics fail to grasp plays about women | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kristin Scott Thomas has accused male theatre critics of failing to understand plays written by women and about women.<\/p>\n

Citing her monologue on menstruation<\/a> in Phoebe Waller-Bridge\u2019s Fleabag, she said the speech had \u201cripped through the internet\u201d, proving the appetite for female stories told on their own terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere would I be without women playwrights?\u201d she said while accepting the inaugural leading light award at the Women\u2019s prize for playwriting ceremony in London, a new honour recognising lifetime achievement by women in the arts. \u201cTo be honest, absolutely nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Thomas referred to her recent stage role in Penelope Skinner\u2019s Lyonesse, which ran at the Harold Pinter theatre in 2023. The play, which explored ambition, motherhood and sexual violence, drew strong audiences but divided critics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe play was mostly hated by the critics,\u201d she said. \u201cSo why did people flock to the Pinter to catch it before we all vanished?<\/p>\n

\u201cA clue might be that many of the reviews were written by men who really didn\u2019t understand what it is to be a working mother or a child-free actress.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said one male critic had described a female character\u2019s lament about her vagina as unrealistic. \u201cWe need women to write that,\u201d she said. \u201cVoicing their experience. Men are beginning to see the light.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said Waller-Bridge\u2019s writing had helped to shift public debate. \u201cWhen Phoebe Waller-Bridge wrote Fleabag series two, she gave me the most fantastic scene about menstruation and metaphors, which ripped through the internet and helped bring what people used to call female problems right into the front row, and even get laws changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Women\u2019s prize for playwriting was founded in 2019 to address gender inequality in theatre. Its organisers say women are under-represented as playwrights and in senior creative roles across the sector.<\/p>\n

Research published by The Stage in 2022 found that about three-quarters of writers working in UK theatre that year were men. A 2023 update from Sphinx Theatre\u2019s \u201cwomen in theatre\u201d survey reported continuing structural barriers for women in the industry, including caring responsibilities and uneven commissioning opportunities.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the ceremony, the producer Ellie Keel, the co-founder of the prize, said she agreed that plays by women received a different critical reception.<\/p>\n

\u201cLyonesse was received as a very mediocre play, when actually it wasn\u2019t,\u201d she told the Stage<\/a>. \u201cIt feels like women writers are held to different standards, and written about in different ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t necessarily need more female critics. I just think the men should do better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Reviews of Lyonesse were mixed. The Stage\u2019s male critic, Dave Fargnoli, awarded the play four stars, while the female critics Arifa Akbar and Fiona Mountford each gave it two stars.<\/p>\n

Scott Thomas said she was committed to championing female writers. \u201cIt isn\u2019t always easy to be a woman in the spotlight,\u201d she said. \u201cBut keeping the fires burning and the arguments flaring is something I relish and would not be able to do without writers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kristin Scott Thomas has accused male theatre critics of failing to understand plays written by women and about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-279324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}