The Stepmother

The Stepmother is a 1924 play by the British playwright Githa Sowerby. It tackles the tensions of female independence in a patriarchal society. The play was first staged for a single performance in January 1924 at the New Theatre in London's West End. It starred Campbell Gullen as Eustace Gaydon and Jean Cadell as Lois Relph. Its first major revival was at the Shaw Festival, Canada in 2008 following the rediscovery of the manuscript. Its professional UK premiere at the Orange Tree Theatre, London, in February 2013. In March 2014 The Stepmother received its North of England premiere, being performed by York Settlement Community Players in the Studio at the York Theatre Royal. The play was produced at the Chichester Festival Theatre in 2017. Synopsis The play begins as middle-aged widower Eustace Gaydon learns that his late sister Fanny has left £30,000 to her impoverished, young, orphaned companion Lois rather than to him. Eustace's financial troubles had left him hoping to inherit, so he woos Lois before she learns of her inheritance. The play continues a decade later. Lois has married Eustace to become the titular stepmother to his two daughters. She owns a successful dress-making business, but Eustace controls and mismanages the family's finances. It is an unhappy marriage, and Lois sought refuge from her misery in an affair with neighbor Peter Holland. When Lois seeks a dowry for her step-daughter's prospective marriage, the truth of Eustace's financial mismanagement emerges. Eustace confronts Peter and flees England with the remains of Lois's fortune. Initial Production The Stepmother was first performed on Sunday, January 13, 1924, in a performance by The Play Actors, and sponsored by Lady Wyndham, the former actress Mary Moore. The Play Actors was a private club that produced single-performance productions of both new and established plays; thus the one-time performance of The Stepmother was not the sign of a flop, but an effect of the production company. The magazine Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News expressed surprise that "such a play should have to be presented by a play-producing society instead of by an ordinary management company whose fortune it might easily make." Despite this accolade, no subsequent production occurred. Sowerby biography Patricia Riley attributes this to a male-dominated British theatre scene that felt free to ignore plays by women.