London theatre stages rediscovered 1913 suffragette play

A forgotten 1913 play set against a backdrop of the suffragette movement has been rediscovered and staged at a London theatre.

Jane Clegg, by St John Ervine, explores themes of female empowerment and gender politics, adultery and fraud.

It was found by University of Hertfordshire researcher Dr Andrew Maunder during a project to revive forgotten plays of World War One.

Dr Maunder said: "The play still strikes a chord today."

A supporter of the suffrage movement, St John Ervine was standing next to suffragette Emily Davison when she ran out in front of the King's horse on Derby Day 1913 and was fatally injured.

Jane Clegg, which has not been performed in London since 1944, depicts a housewife who considers building a new life away from her husband who has embezzled money from his employers and got another woman pregnant.

It shows that for women without money and connections, breaking free was not easy.

The revival at the Finborough Theatre is a collaboration between the venue and Dr Maunder, who discovered it during his work with the World War One theatre project for the Centre for Everyday Lives in War.

Dr Maunder said the play, which had originally received "rave reviews" and been seen all over the country, probably disappeared because it was seen as "old-fashioned" by the time of the "theatre revolution of the 1950s and 1960s".

"Things have obviously moved on since 1913 [but] people - often women - can still find themselves stuck in relationships and situations which turn out to be manipulative or even abusive," he said.

"Revisiting plays popular during the war also allow us to see how issues at home were presented to our ancestors and, in this play, how the issue of women's roles continued to be discussed even though the suffragette campaign had temporarily been put on hold."