By Melanie Davies

“Portraits is a play that I’ve been thinking about for many years. In 1971 Linda Nochlin wrote an article entitled ‘Why have there been no great women artists’? It was a question that set hares racing in the art world and prompted a broader discussion taking in makers of all art, the writers, poets, actors, musicians and so on.
“With this play I wanted to consider the question, just take it out again and give it a spin, because it’s still important. I wanted to see if I could make a play that focused on just five women, giving each one a voice, speaking from her time, to show why that question needed to be asked in the first place. It’s a big question and I have taken many liberties with the real women’s lives by focusing in on what was significant to my exploration.
“I have used the actual words of each woman quite frequently in the play and used the research to inform the character’s attitudes and the words that I have given them. Set in the National Portrait Gallery, the night security guards raise their own concerns about the five historic women and how their own lives are impacted by them.”

Attic Theatre production: April/May 2026

The Cast:
Rae – Deborah Messenger
Frank – Chris Turner
Kitty Marion – Claire Scott
Artemisia Gentileschi – Lou Weldon
Hildegarde Von Bingen – Pat Immins
Mary Wollstonecraft – Lili Pocsai
Eileen O’Shaughnessy – Semele Xerri