Company name: Character Ladies
Founder: Kate Crutchley. Associate members: Susan (aka Clarke) Hayes, Donna (aka Dee) Berwick
Established: 1986
Reason: Kate Crutchley decided to establish a company of her own, to distinguish her work from the plethora of companies and productions that were using Oval House as their principal performance platform – thanks to her. She wanted to pursue her own projects, such as the story of the Ladies of Llangollen, and commission plays on subjects that she was particularly interested in. She thought it time that her work and her aspirations took on a distinct ‘character’, so to speak; also she considered herself in some ways a ‘character actress’ – hence Character Ladies was born.
Current status: Disbanded 1991
Area of work: Lesbian
Policy: The policy was to produce/commission/perform plays that were either historical – The Ladies (Sandra Freeman), Sappho & Aphrodite (Karen Malpede) – or contemporary pieces that took for granted their subject matter, i.e. lesbian life. Not ‘issue’ plays, but rather work based firmly on the reality of lesbian lives, relationships and experience, such as Supporting Roles (Sandra Freeman), Jigsaws (Jennifer Rogers), Echo (Susan Hayes). Also, Kate being Kate, plays that were just plain fun! – Death on Lesbos (Penny Gulliver), The Sisters Mysteries (Penny Gulliver), etc. Kate knew that lesbians, like everyone else, wanted to be entertained, and although not every piece was a success, she certainly aspired to the ethos of theatre as entertainment. Kate was a very political person, and fully committed to lesbian emancipation and empowerment – it was her legacy to the generation she inspired – but she sure wanted to have fun too, and very much took the view that our hard-earned equality should be rewarded with pleasure.
Structure: Artistic Director, Kate Crutchley
Based: Oval House
Funding: Arts Council, Greater London Arts (GLA), Lambeth Arts Council
Performance venues: Oval House
Audience:
Company work and process:
Kate Crutchley oversaw the work and trajectory of the company, and was usually, but not always, director. The work process itself, however, was fairly egalitarian and cooperative, everyone pitching in where their strengths lay.
Personal appraisals:
Clarke Hayes: ‘Kate Crutchley was one of the most ‘artistic’ people I ever met – always looking for truth, and beauty – something very close to her heart. She invariably knew precisely what she wanted a play to ‘look’ like, and she went about constructing that image almost like a painting, adding all the various elements and layers until the whole thing was finished to her very high standard, and brought beauty, wherever possible, to life.’
Productions:
Interviewee reference: Kate Crutchley
Existing archive material: With founder members of the company and Unfinished Histories
Bibliography:
Jigsaws by Jennifer Rogers (Dramatic Publishing Company 1988)
Supporting Roles by Sandra Freeman in Lesbian Plays: Two (Methuen 1989)
Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Clarke Hayes for writing the copy on this page, and also to Claire Oberman. Page constructed by Jessica Higgs. November 2013
The creation of this page was supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lotter Fund.