Nineties Woman is a new show from award-winning comedian Rosie Wilby, tracing a journey through early 90s feminism, refracted through a very personal lens. It's a Time Out Critics choice (19/3/12) and has been covered by the Telegraph under the charming title, What Happens When Militant Student Feminists Grow Up (er - we become militant thirtystomethings and then middle-aged militants with mortgages, then menopausal militants?)
Starting with her treasured old copies of Matrix (Greek for ‘womb’), the newspaper that she and a collective of women set up at York University in 1990, Rosie peeks through a kaleidoscope of cultural history and personal activism including poll tax riots, Reclaim The Night rallies, political lesbianism and same sex wedding demos and wonders how on earth we ended up with ‘Girl Power’? Was she partly to blame when she put a frivolous ‘Celebrate Women’ cartoon on the cover of Matrix instead of a Rape Crisis logo, in the vain hope that more people might pick up it and read their articles about body image, sexual harassment, domestic violence and eating disorders. Or when, during her tenure as Student’s Union Women’s Officer, she dressed up as Kylie Minogue for a publicity stunt. See a clip of her performing below:
Channeling a riot grrl-like DIY energy, the Matrix collective would cut and glue an issue together each month – once daubing a wall with splendid green and purple ‘Sisterhood is Powerful’ graffiti on a guerilla midnight mission just for the cover photo. In this funny and moving show, part documentary, part detective story and part unrequited love story, Rosie traces this original collective and investigates what happened to feminism (and the woman that everyone had a crush on).
Twenty years on, the Matrix women have diversified into all kinds of work – some have remained in journalism, others are authors, academics and playwright/poets, one a clinical embryologist and another a former barrister now running a successful vintage hair company styling hair on film sets and more. View the trailer for Nineties Woman below:
Says Rosie,
The F Word have said it's hilarious, the Planet London said it was witty, empathetically nostalgic and incredibly well-narrated and some other net outlet said it is a joy of a play.
Nineties Woman was commissioned by Shout LGBT Festival at Mac in Birmingham in March 2013 and is supported using public funding by Arts Council England. Creation of the piece was supported by: Ben Walters, Time Out London’s cabaret editor; Naomi Paxton, actress, character comedian and writer (The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays); and Colin Watkeys, director of several internationally touring shows with performer Claire Dowie.
Upcoming dates are as follows:
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
Rosie Wilby is available for authored pieces and for interview. For hi res pics, press tickets or interview requests, please contact Liz Hyder on liz@lizhyder.co.uk or on Twitter @LondonBessie
Rosie has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends, Summer Nights, Midweek and Woman’s Hour, LBC and BBC London and at festivals including Glastonbury, Green Man, Larmer Tree and Latitude. She was a finalist at Funny Women 2006 and Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year 2007. Her 2009 show The Science Of Sex won a Fringe Report Award, was a sell-out at Cambridge Comedy Festival, Cambridge Science Festival, Manchester Science Festival, Camden Fringe and Liverpool Comedy Festival and was been selected for Fresh Fruit Festival in New York City July 2013. Her 2011 show Rosie’s Pop Diary, later to become How (not) To Make It In Britpop, toured nationally to critical acclaim and she has appeared at WOW (Women of the World) Festival and Polari Literary Salon at London’s Southbank Centre. For Edinburgh 2013, she took a brand new show Is Monogamy Dead? to Assembly venues. Her writing has been published in The Guardian, The Independent, Time Out, Diva and more and she features in a new anthology published by Little Episodes.
text (c) Rosie Wilby/Nineties Woman team.
Starting with her treasured old copies of Matrix (Greek for ‘womb’), the newspaper that she and a collective of women set up at York University in 1990, Rosie peeks through a kaleidoscope of cultural history and personal activism including poll tax riots, Reclaim The Night rallies, political lesbianism and same sex wedding demos and wonders how on earth we ended up with ‘Girl Power’? Was she partly to blame when she put a frivolous ‘Celebrate Women’ cartoon on the cover of Matrix instead of a Rape Crisis logo, in the vain hope that more people might pick up it and read their articles about body image, sexual harassment, domestic violence and eating disorders. Or when, during her tenure as Student’s Union Women’s Officer, she dressed up as Kylie Minogue for a publicity stunt. See a clip of her performing below:
Channeling a riot grrl-like DIY energy, the Matrix collective would cut and glue an issue together each month – once daubing a wall with splendid green and purple ‘Sisterhood is Powerful’ graffiti on a guerilla midnight mission just for the cover photo. In this funny and moving show, part documentary, part detective story and part unrequited love story, Rosie traces this original collective and investigates what happened to feminism (and the woman that everyone had a crush on).
Twenty years on, the Matrix women have diversified into all kinds of work – some have remained in journalism, others are authors, academics and playwright/poets, one a clinical embryologist and another a former barrister now running a successful vintage hair company styling hair on film sets and more. View the trailer for Nineties Woman below:
Says Rosie,
“I started reading books and articles by some of the younger feminists coming through, like Kat Banyard, and started wondering again about Matrix - what our legacy had been, whether it was still going and what my fellow writers were doing these days. I found my dusty old copies up at my Dad’s among all my old stuff and, once I started reading them again, found myself on a detective mission to find out. It turns out a later group of York students started up a new feminist zine, Matrix Reloaded, in 2006. They were still featuring a lot of the same issues which, in some ways is frustrating as it demonstrates that we haven’t come very far over the last 2 decades, but it was great to meet them and know we’d inspired them to create something. That meeting wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t started making this show.”
The F Word have said it's hilarious, the Planet London said it was witty, empathetically nostalgic and incredibly well-narrated and some other net outlet said it is a joy of a play.
Nineties Woman was commissioned by Shout LGBT Festival at Mac in Birmingham in March 2013 and is supported using public funding by Arts Council England. Creation of the piece was supported by: Ben Walters, Time Out London’s cabaret editor; Naomi Paxton, actress, character comedian and writer (The Methuen Drama Book of Suffrage Plays); and Colin Watkeys, director of several internationally touring shows with performer Claire Dowie.
Upcoming dates are as follows:
- 19 Oct 2013 – Women in Comedy Festival, Manchester
- 1 Nov 2013 – Calm Down Dear Festival, Camden People’s Theatre
- 17 Nov 2013 - Outburst Festival, Belfast
- 21 Feb 2014 - Rich Mix, London
- 21 March 2014 - Burton Taylor Studio, Oxford Playhouse
- 29 March 2014 - The Courtyard, Hereford
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
Rosie Wilby is available for authored pieces and for interview. For hi res pics, press tickets or interview requests, please contact Liz Hyder on liz@lizhyder.co.uk or on Twitter @LondonBessie
Rosie has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends, Summer Nights, Midweek and Woman’s Hour, LBC and BBC London and at festivals including Glastonbury, Green Man, Larmer Tree and Latitude. She was a finalist at Funny Women 2006 and Leicester Mercury Comedian of the Year 2007. Her 2009 show The Science Of Sex won a Fringe Report Award, was a sell-out at Cambridge Comedy Festival, Cambridge Science Festival, Manchester Science Festival, Camden Fringe and Liverpool Comedy Festival and was been selected for Fresh Fruit Festival in New York City July 2013. Her 2011 show Rosie’s Pop Diary, later to become How (not) To Make It In Britpop, toured nationally to critical acclaim and she has appeared at WOW (Women of the World) Festival and Polari Literary Salon at London’s Southbank Centre. For Edinburgh 2013, she took a brand new show Is Monogamy Dead? to Assembly venues. Her writing has been published in The Guardian, The Independent, Time Out, Diva and more and she features in a new anthology published by Little Episodes.
text (c) Rosie Wilby/Nineties Woman team.