Votes for Women!

Last night I went to the World Premiere of Her Naked Skin at the National Theatre. It is always a very special moment to see a play for the first time, particularly when it's written by a brilliant author such as Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The story is set in 1913 around the work of the Suffragette Movement, trying to convince men that women should have the vote. The sub-plot is about two of the suffragettes, one, an aristocratic lady in her forties, married with 7 children, and the other, a factory girl who joins the Movement. The two of them fall in love, and we experience all the problems that relationship has in 1913. It's a tour de force, and the critics this morning will be writing several column inches about the two leads, but I thought the back-ups, Celia's husband played by Adrian Rawlins and the older suffragette, Flo played by Susan Engel - were two of the finest performances I've seen, even at the National, for some time. But then both these actors have been performing at this level for many years and it is a pleasure to be reminded, having seen so many second-rate films in the last 6 months, that we still have actors and actresses who are in a different calibre to those posing as film stars. If the play has a weakness, it's 20 minutes too long, which I'm sure they will sort out in the next few weeks, but for my regular readers, don't miss it.