Oxford Playhouse is thrilled to announce that its Spring 2024 Young Company production will be Jessica Swale’s Blue Stockings.

Playing on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 March, the production is directed by Playhouse Head of Participation Paul Simpson and performed by young people from the Oxfordshire area.

Oxford Playhouse Young Company is made up of fourteen members, aged 17 to 25, forming an inclusive group of skilled, considerate, and curious young performers, bringing their unique experiences of the world and passion for telling stories on the stage to the project.

The cast is formed of both returning Young Company members and new emerging Oxfordshire talent. From last year’s production of A Servant to Two Masters¸ the company welcomes back Anna White, James Ferriman, Arun Friers, Thomas Chapman, Pia Saunders-Patel and Macks O’Byrne. They are joined by new company members Lorena Vidal, Miranda Barnes, Georgina Peters, Angus Godfrey, Robin Heywood, Hywel Scott, Jessica Faye and Baia Crockett.

For this production, audiences will be invited to sit on the Oxford Playhouse Main Stage, with the space around them transformed into an intimate studio theatre, with traverse style staging, brought to life by an in-house production team.

Much of the creative and production team is made up of the Oxford Playhouse resident team, including director Paul Simpson, producer Leah O’Grady, vocal arranger Alexander Tilley, technical director Ashley Bale, costume and set designer Immy Howard, stage manager Tanya Jackson, lighting designer Will Hayman, sound designer Gus Van Spyk, with set construction by Tom Eveleigh. Also joining the team as movement director is Oxford Playhouse Evolve Artist Emma Webb, co-founder of Oxford People’s Theatre.

Director Paul Simpson, Head of Participation at Oxford Playhouse, mentors the Young Company throughout the year, expanding their skills and passion for theatre. Of the upcoming production, Simpson said:

“As ever, I am proud to share the results of the Oxford Playhouse Young Company’s hard work and determined focus with our audience, who I hope will find motivation from this small but significant corner of history that we present here. Jessica Swale’s text has created a rehearsal room full of conversation, debate, frustration and amazement.”

Leah O’Grady joins the team of Blue Stockings in her role as Resident Producer of Oxford Playhouse and Magdalen College School. Recently graduating from the University of Oxford, she has been the production assistant on several OP projects and is now producing two upcoming MCS Drama productions for The Playhouse and Burton Taylor Studio, The Odyssiad and Nora: A Doll’s House.

Immy Howard is Head of Wardrobe at Oxford Playhouse, she has previously designed for The Playhouse and BT Studio productions, including Jack and the Beanstalk pantomime, Dear Father Christmas, Mind the Monsters, and A Servant to Two Masters.

Jessica Swale’s witty and celebrated play, Blue Stockings, charts the journey of a group of educational pioneers.

Girton College, Cambridge. 1896. Four young women embark on the first year of their higher education, knowing they will never formally graduate or be recognized for their achievements.

Despite their intense studying and matching their male peers across the board academically, they will leave only with the stigma of being a ‘blue stocking’ – an unnatural, educated woman.

Determined to fight their cause, their first tumultuous year sees them facing the huge challenges of the class system, extreme hostility and prejudice, whilst balancing their own competing desires for learning, family, and love.