33 Belfast women. Wisely, he declined and recommended they write it themselves with his help. The group went forth to devise multiple plays as an ensemble with Marie Jones later taking over scriptwriting from Martin Lynch. Their practice was defined by collaborative work, both as a company and with their community. I was first introduced to Charabanc through studying one of their most well-known plays, Somewhere Over The Balcony (2001), in my “Political Theatre: The 1980’s” module [DRA2110]. Northern Irish theatre stuck out in the predominantly English-based module and so I decided to conduct some independent research. While reading various collections of information (not academic articles, more fact-files) the name Lay Up Your Ends continually popped up as being Charabanc’s first and most notable work. However, when I went to read the playtext I discovered it was nowhere to be found. No academic archives, available and unavailable to me, had the script and scholarly articles were far from extensive. I eventually contacted Linen Hall Library in Belfast who own the original script to ask for a digital copy- which they were happy to provide. However, I managed to obtain a physical copy of the 25th anniversary edition of the published script from an online second-hand book store. This copy included a personal introduction (Winter, 2008) by one of the founding members which I will frequently reference throughout this essay as the primary source of my understanding of how the group functioned. “25th Anniversary Edition” is a misleading description as although the publication did commemorate Lay Up Your Ends turning 25, it was the first time the script had ever been published. Moreover, the copyright belongs to Martin Lynch, not Charabanc, despite the writing process being a collaboration between the two. My difficulty in obtaining the script presented Charabanc Theatre as the perfect subject to explore visibility within theatre. The next excerpt is from the last three paragraphs of the essay exemplifying why Charabanc struggled to remain visible in the world of academia: Despite Charabanc’s theatre being recognisably pro-women, they adamantly refused to be prescribed as a ‘feminist group’. This was first because the women, being both Protestant and Catholic, knew it would segregate them from the sectarian, conservative, community audience they sought to cultivate. Secondly, Charabanc notes: “We in Northern Ireland live in a military or paramilitary state… We have to approach our work from a woman-centred position whilst in a state of war” (Goodman, 1996 in Gilbert 2001: 443). The Troubles reduced feminist concerns within the political agenda and entrenched attitudes towards the home being the only acceptable feminine space resulting in the perception that women have no place in the public sphere. Therefore, openly identifying as feminist would damage the group’s perception as the culture of time didn’t value outwardly feminist movements.
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