A Good Night Out for the Girls

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction: A Good Night Out for the Girls

   • Elaine, Gerry

   Pages 1-22

3. Jam and Jerusalem/Sentimentality and Feminism: Calendar Girls

   • Elaine

   Pages 23-43

4. Roaring Women and Class Acts: The Naked Truth and the Chippendales’ Ultimate Girls Night Out

   • Gerry

   Pages 44-69

5. Age Liberation: Susan Boyle, ‘Grumpy Old Women’ and Virginia Ironside’s Monologues

   • Elaine

   Pages 70-92

6. Once More with Feeling: Joanna Murray-Smith’s The Female of the Species and Nic Green’s Trilogy

   • Gerry

   Pages 93-113

7. Work, Family, Romance and the Utopian Sensibilities of the Chick Megamusical Mamma Mia!

   • Elaine

   Pages 114-133

8. The Ghosts of New Burlesque

   • Gerry

   Pages 134-157

9. Entertaining Others: Shappi Khorsandi and Andi Osho

   • Elaine, Gerry

   Pages 158-182

10. ‘Are We There Yet?’ — Final Reflections and Marisa Carnesky’s Ghost Train

    • Elaine, Gerry

    Pages 183-193

11. Back Matter

    Pages 194-218

    PDF

Moving across the boundaries of mainstream and experimental circuits, from the affective pleasures of commercially successful shows such as Calendar Girls and Mamma Mia! to the feminist possibilities of new burlesque and stand-up, this book offers a lucid and accessible account of popular feminisms in contemporary theatre and performance.

• Feminism and performance
• Contemporary Performance
• Affect
• experiment
• family
• feminism
• girls
• theatre
• Utopia
• women
• work

“It offers very personal accounts from both Aston and Harris as to their own experiences both as feminist scholars and performance spectators, making this a valuable addition to the fields of feminist studies and performance studies. … The personal, woman-centred tone deftly reflects the complex nature of the theoretical positions, performances and audiences being discussed.” (Cath Badham, Platform Postgraduate Journal of Theatre Arts, Vol. 10 (1), 2016) 

'Elaine Aston's and Geraldine Harris's A Good Night Out For the Girls offers timely and theoretically savvy explications of the feminist potential within a surprisingly eclectic array of traditionally mainstream performance genres...Their introduction is an account of the field of feminist performance scholarship, and a pointed assessment of the challenges inherent tothis historic moment when concrete definitions of feminism are elusive; it is indispensable to any study of feminist theatre.' - Christine Woodworth, Broadside: A Newsletter of the Theatre Library Association

'From two of the most accomplished and inspiring critics in the field of theatre and performance studies comes this book about popular entertainment and performance for women... Arising from this book is a renewed sense of the feminist possibilities of performance to connect with the lived experience of an audience, and to repair the fragmentation of women's experience in the creation of enjoyment. The community of audience in the process of connection and response to the show on stage becomes an image of possible solidarity between women in the world outside the theatre. How this energy and joy operated in the wider social and political world is not within the authors' realm of analysis, but the theatre or performance space as a space of "impossible possibilities" isaffirmed. The book itself reflects a sense of potential; it is stimulating, scholarly and highly enjoyable to read.' - Catherine Leeney, Journal of Contemporary Drama in English

'Although it contains discussion and analyses of a large variety of performances, the multifarious character of A Good Night Out for the Girls provides an extraordinary account of contemporary popular theatre and performance and it should become essential reading for those interested both in popular feminism and in having a great night out (or in) with the girls.' - Carmen Szabo, Theatre Research International

'A fascinating, boundary-crossing book that combines the personal with the scholarly in exciting new ways. For this reader, the book provided a really good girls' night in.' - Susan Bassnett, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Warwick, UK

ELAINE ASTON and GERALDINE HARRIS are theatre professors based at Lancaster University, UK. Elaine's publications include Feminist Views on the English Stage (2003) and Caryl Churchill (3rd edition, 2010). Geraldine's previous publications include Staging Femininities (1999) and Beyond Representation: The Politics and Aesthetics of Television Drama (2006). Together they have co-edited Feminist Futures: Theatre, Performance, Theory (2006) and co-authored Performance Practice and Process: Contemporary [Women] Practitioners (2008).

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