The Stage

Fifty and fabulous

Published Tuesday 23 June 2009 at 12:30

As a mature actress and singer (playing age 40 to 50), I am compelled to respond to the equal roles article by Matthew Hemley in The Stage last week (Stage campaign inspires Mosse to write play for older women, June 18, page 3).

I always make it a mission to offer a heartfelt compliment to anyone involved in something that has moved or delighted me. I therefore have to heap praise onto the playwright Pam Gems, for highlighting a subject that has weighed down my soapbox for the last four or five years.

Actresses over 40 or 50 and onwards are so maligned and ignored by play and screen writers, directors and producers (of course there are exceptions) who all assume that a) they are only fit for stereotypical roles - mum, aunty, housekeeper, and b) that the possibility that they could be sexually alluring or even sexually active for that matter is either distasteful or downright impossible.

Yet almost on a daily basis, I encounter women in this age bracket who are obviously enjoying life to the full, something which their sense of fashion and fun give full testament to. If these qualities are ever included in scripts for women of this age, they are usually comedies where it is assumed that female characters in this category are not to be taken seriously.

There are many like me who find it very hard to be cast in roles for characters over 40 or 50, simply because they are written with women who look ordinary or even dull in mind, because writers and production people have made the assumption that this is the norm for that age group. I am sure many will ignore or criticise this point of view, but the beauty of being in one’s ‘prime’ years is that I don’t care. Audiences are missing out on plays and films that could contain characters that reflect women who are fun, feisty and sexual and who have the chutzpah to put it all to good use.

Jules Kingham

Email supplied