Which modern classics would you like to see with an all-female cast?

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2013/sep/23/modern-classics-all-female-cast

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Women are at the heart of Ché Walker and Arthur Darvill's The Lightning Child, a version of Euripides' The Bacchae at Shakespeare's Globe. But one of the odd things about this performance is how conventionally the women are portrayed. For all its apparent attempt to examine gender issues, in its presentation of the chorus it falls back on a line-up of scantily clad women gyrating as if in a Rihanna video. Similarly, the camper element of the production fetishes the drag-queen stereotype in which men offer up an outlandish, often monstrous take on femininity.

I happened to see The Lightning Child the evening before Equity called for action on gender stereotypes in theatre and on TV. The union argues that they are still "widely accepted in the performing arts, film and television industries", and that portraits of women are often focused on "caring responsibilities, attractiveness, or on perceptions of women as sex objects or victims."

The Lightning Child is but one of any number of plays that I've seen over the last month where the choices made simply confirmed the status quo of the way women are portrayed on stage, rather than challenging it. Is it a sign of deep-rooted misogyny or conspiracy against women designed to keep them in their place? Sometimes, perhaps, but in general I'd argue that these continued gender stereotypes are mere thoughtlessness on the part of writers, casting directors and directors.

As Watford Palace's Brigid Larmour recently observed in a piece asking whether Shakespeare sold women short: "Playwrights do not notice when they have written something for nine men and one woman." However, Larmour is attempting to redress that balance with the Ideal World season, which includes plays by Gary Owen, Stacey Gregg and EV Crowe, in which there is an even proportion of male and female roles.

But Equity is right, these gender stereotypes need to be challenged in exactly the same way that racial stereotypes must continue to be challenged too. Consider Larmour's quote and simply substitute nine men and one woman for nine white actors and one black actor, and you'll see what I mean. British theatre remains predominantly white, male and – of course – middle class.

Given that women buy more theatre tickets than men, it does seem extraordinary that we continue to accept depictions of ourselves on stage that simply don't reflect our own experience of the world. There are small shoots of change. Maxine Peake will play Hamlet at the Royal Exchange in Manchester; there are increasing numbers of all-female productions of Shakespeare and eventually they should become as much part of the landscape and no more a cause for comment as all-male productions of Shakespeare's plays. But why is it just Shakespeare? There has been an all-black Godot in the UK, why not an all-female one too? Or what about an all-female revival of Pinter's The Caretaker? Let's have some other suggestions of modern classics you'd like to see with all-female casts.

At the very least, I think we should expect those who programme, commission, write and direct plays to stop, think and question every gender decision they make when they put on a play. Equity is calling for government action, but I don't think this is an issue for government, which moves too slowly – it's an issue for all of us working in theatre and we can begin today by challenging our own ingrained thinking around gender.

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