The Stage

Playwright Gems blames Britain’s sexual repression for lack of older female roles

Published Tuesday 9 June 2009 at 14:10 by Matthew Hemley

Olivier award-winning playwright Pam Gems has blamed Britain’s “immature and fearful” attitude to sex on the shortage of roles for older actresses in theatre.

Speaking to The Stage, Gems - best known for Piaf, which enjoyed a revival last year at the Donmar Warehouse and in the West End - described Britain as sexually repressed, claiming this led to women over 40 rarely being cast in roles other than “behind the counter” people or mothers.

“We are a repressed country. I don’t know whether it was Victoria or what. Here, a middle-aged woman is anyone over the age of 40 or 50. In France, a woman of that age is known as femme de trente ans - a woman of 30 years - and she still gets leads as an attractive woman, dangerous and sexual. One or two actresses in this country are allowed to be sexual, but there is a real problem. And it goes beyond the writing to the mores of this country,” she said.

Gems, who won an Olivier for her play Stanley in 1997 and who is known for her feminist viewpoints, said other European countries are much less afraid of telling love stories featuring older couples, but said the UK’s fixation with youth meant older performers are overlooked.

“It makes me very sad, because in France - which is such a chauvinistic country - you still get love stories where lovers are in their sixties. The man has a bulbous nose and the woman is a scrunty little thing, but you are weeping because it’s real. It cuts through the crap and the cliches we are fed,” she said.

The playwright also admitted that even when writers create characters for older performers, they are requested to make them younger.

“They would say, ‘Make her 45’ and then get someone who looks 35 on stage anyway,” she said.

Gems also criticized the theatre’s fixation with celebrity, claiming it is no longer viable to have a play produced without a big name in the leading role.

She said she had a play being optioned at the moment, but claimed unless someone like Gwyneth Paltrow took the lead, it was unlikely to get any money behind it.

“We are in a tough situation. You can rarely afford yourself the luxury of casting artistically, because you have to sell tickets, and what sells tickets is well-known names,” she said.