A Female-Led Festival Produced and Presented by The Playground Theatre

Creative Producer and Curator: Naomi Sorkin | Producer & GM: Helena Hipolito | Associate Producer: Raminder Kaur | Associate Producer: Myriam Cyr | Chloe Nelkin PR | Marketing Holly-Anne White

Women's Voices: A Celebration (WVAC) is a pioneering & inspiring festival to coincide with International Women's Day. The event brings together a diverse & exceptional group of female artists from multiple art forms- theatre, music, dance & literature, exhibitions, talks, performances & workshops with communities. 

The lineup features a host of remarkable women from various creative disciplines, each distinguished by their unique voices and powerful storytelling.

Choreopoem Monologue Play by Carol Leeming MBE FRSA staged reading & Q&A with Anni Domingo

Dread: causing awful terror, horrific, strong feelings of worry, anxiety or differently feelings of awe, of being greatly regarded Who will ask, who will call?

A solo performance, an exploration, using word, sound, music, physical theatre and still digital visuals, to create a liminal space, to explore a little known in reality, a single act of egregious immensity. Will the Cycle Be Unbroken? This choreopoem play, The Dreadful Dance of Ms. Iniquity, inspired by the violent death of George Floyd, #BLM Black Lives Global Movement and written during the Covid 19 Lockdown. It is presented on the 5th year anniversary in 2025 of these tragic and momentous events.

Carol will be interview by Anni on the creation of her choreopoem play and will interview Anni about her first novel Breaking the Maafa Chain based on the true story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta (Queen Victoria’s Goddaughter), taking us on a journey of loss, survival, hope, identity and tradition.

Created and Directed by Kristin Winters | Devised and Performed by Sarah Kent, Gabrielle Moleta, and Kristin Winters | Sound by Florence Hand | Musical Director Gemma Storr | This is a Bound By Theatre Production.

A multi-generational female ensemble combine physical performance, soundscapes, and visceral imagery in a contemporary exploration of St Hildegard of Bingen, 12th century visionary, composer, and poet.

‘it is difficult not to get swept up in this show, which is sometimes exquisitely moving.’ Lou Reviews

Maggie Razavi & Natalie Ava Nasr will host a live podcast featuring esteemed special guest playwright Gail Louw and actor Sara Kestelman, will share there insights and experiences into the art of being a female artist.

Written by Maria Vigar | Directed by Anastasia Revi | Music composed or arranged by Louis de Bernières

Yearning for love in youth is irresistible - in a foreign land it’s fearsome.

The Women's Voices: a celebration's season opens with an exhibition of “ The Divine Feminine” by Aimee Birnbaum

Aimee focuses on the feminine allure in figures such as the mysterious Dark Lady of Shakespeare, Lilith, and the Shekinah, As well as painting goddesses and mythic women Aimee is fascinated by the stand out personalities of pre-war cafe society and its craze for tango and cabaret.

THIS IS A FREE EXHIBITION 

Location: The Playground Theatre

“I don’t remember exactly when things with us started to go properly wrong – I just remember suddenly finding myself in it.” The Playground Theatre offers a unique, unmissable opportunity to see this seminal, necessary play by Dennis Kelly and directed by Emily Raymond

Maggie Cole, Harriet Walter and Katharine Dain perform in a musical evening “Jane Austen & Colette: Writers and Musicians” featuring excerpts from the work of these two iconic female authors. 

Music Score: Haydn, Cramer, Gluck, Storace, Ravel, Debussy, Poulenc and Lerner/Loewe.

 ‘Jane Austen/Colette does something close to my heart in that it adds layers of understanding to our appreciation of these two great women of letters. Hearing their music, knowing that I will have the chance to speak their fine words, is a double delight.’ Harriet Walter 

Closing the festival is ‘Gloria: A Life’, starring the legendary Stockard Channing as Gloria Steinem.
This staged play is written and directed by Tony, Emmy and multi-award-winning director and playwright Emily Mann who was recently inducted into the ‘American’ Theatre Hall of Fame.

Act II of ‘Gloria: A Life’ is an immersive Talking Circle, engaging with these vital themes of feminism and activism.

Directed by Mariela Manso | Written by Vicki Donoghue 

Presented by ECCT Teen Company 

Part of the National Theatre Connections Festival 2025

Spine-chilling  play by Vicki Donoghue will have you sitting on the edge of your seats for the entire hour. The play is set in a spooky forest where students from a Pupil Referral group are made to go orienteering in what they discover is England’s most haunted woods. Stalked by eerie ghost children determined to keep them there forever!