Wollstonecraft Live!: & the Story of the Statue

A written introduction by the researcher and theatre director Anna Birch tells of the 10 year campaign to raise funds for and erect a statue on Newington Green in London in honour of the 'Mother' of Feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft. The unveiling of the statue caused considerable public controversy with some viewers attempting to cover it up. The naked statue designed by artist Maggi Hambling upset many feminists who claimed that it undermined the works of Wollstonecraft and her belief in the equality of women, while others praised the concept of a statue that honoured the spirit of womanhood, rather than simply putting up a representational artwork of Wollstonecraft on a plinth.Kaethe Fine's play Wollstonecraft Live! was performed on Newington Green to celebrate the regeneration project of Newington Green and to raise awareness of the campaign for a statue honoring Mary Wollstonecraft.The play depicts the shooting of a film which centres on a love story between the 18th century radical Mary Wollstonecraft and the writer William Godwin, who was Wollstonecraft's lover for the last year of her life.As the cast and crew rehearse a critical tracking shot for the film, dramatic conflicts and the underlying threads of Wollstonecraft's life are revealed. The relationships in Mary's life, and her future contribution, all tragically cut short by circumstance, are interwoven through archived material and contemporary dialogue, creating a radiant, moving drama of the woman, and the time in which she lived, loved and died.