Phyl

by Cecily Hamilton
directed by Britt Berke

October 3rd through November 7th

Performance Schedule:
  • Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat, at 7:00 pm
  • Wed, Sat, Sun at 2:00 pm

10/7 no 2:00 pm perf.
10/14 & 10/23, no 7:00 pm perf.

Where:

Theatre Row
410 West 42nd St

Let’s Talk About Sex:

In ’26-’27, Mint will produce two plays that feature frank talk about a topic nice people don’t often discuss in public: Sex. Two plays about love & lovemaking, relationships & marriage, sin & pleasure.

First up is PHYL, written in 1911 by Cicely Hamilton. Phyllis (Phyl) Chester is trapped in the solitary existence of a governess, walled off from the life she craves—until she loses her temper and does something that could cost her everything.

PHYL was never published. The play was set to premiere in Oxford under the direction of B. Iden Payne. However the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University banned the play. Hamilton wasn’t fussed, “It really doesn’t matter,” she said, “All those Oxford small boys can run up to London any time they like and see something much worse.” Hamilton goes on to comment how “PHYL passed the Lord Chamberlain, who did not require the alteration of a single line.”

PHYL premiered in Manchester instead. The Manchester Courier review ran under the headline “Woman Who Did.” and a disapproving critic describes Phyl “slaking thirsty lips in the voluptuous pleasure of life.” When Hamilton was asked how she described the play, she said, “Well, I call it a comedy because it has a happy ending, and I hope somebody is funny in it.”

 

Cicely Hamilton (1872-1952) wrote several plays tackling social issues.  But it was DIANA OF DOBSON’S that caught London’s eye and heart with it’s light touch and romantic bent in spite of it’s consideration ‘serious issues.’  First performed in London in 1908, the play was “accepted as a true picture of the shop-assistant’s life,” to quote from a 1908 press clipping that, “convinced people that something should be done about it.”

Hamilton was a member of the Women Writers’ Suffrage League, a founding member of the Actress’ Franchise League and, was one of the first members of the Scottish Women’s Hospital Committee.  During World War I she helped to establish an Auxilary Hospital in France where she nursed wounded soldiers.  She later joined the Women’s Auxiliary Corps and was assigned to a postal unit.  Eventually she formed a repertory company that performed plays for Allied soldiers on the Western Front.  After the War, Hamilton worked as a freelance journalist, and was a regular contributor to feminist journal Time and Tide.

Hamilton’s works include two propaganda plays, HOW THE VOTE WAS WON and A PAGEANT OF GREAT WOMEN, and her influential book MARRIAGE AS A TRADE.  Her autobiography, published in 1935, is entitled LIFE ERRANT.