The first appearance by a woman on an English stage was 21st May 1656 or was it?

(HRH Queen Henrietta Maria Stuart 1609-1669, wife of King Charles I)

Those of you who read my blog entries on the history of Theatre will already know that I use a certain book as my source for the 'This day in Theatrical History' posts. That book is 'Who's Who in the Theatre' the 1947 edition, you may also remember me referring to how this means that sometimes its information for said day is incorrect or since its publishing new historical evidence has come to light. It seems that this has happened again as I started my research about the first Female Actor to grace a stage in England and found evidence that I was nearly 30 years off in my information! I should start with what the book claims.

The book claims that on the 21st of May 1656 a Mrs Coleman played a part in Davenants Opera 'Siege of Rhodes' in front of a paying audience at Rutland House. This was in the 1940s believed to be the first performance by a female actor but it is incorrect. Mrs Coleman was one of the first and was without doubt the first in a resurgence of women on the English stage but she was not the first recorded professional performer. Mrs Coleman incidentally did continue her performing career for a while longer in productions of 'Siege of Rhodes' but she was soon replaced by a contemporary named Mary Betterton who was considered much better than her predecessor because unlike Mrs Coleman she was not a 'poor actress'. 

So now knowing that, we must ask ourselves, who were the first female performers on the stage? Now for that we have to thank HRH Queen Henrietta Maria of England, pictured above, who engaged a French company to perform in England in... 1629. Yes in 1629, less than 15 years after the death of Shakespeare, we have the first records of female actors. They were engaged by the Queen to perform at Blackfriars Playhouse and they caused a massive uproar and despite trying their luck at the Fortune Theatre and the Red Bull Theatre they were harried off the stage. At the time it was seen as unthinkable and scandalous to see a Woman on the stage, in a time of rising Puritanism it was in many ways a dangerous step. The Queen was already unpopular for being French and also a Catholic, a factor which helped the Puritans in their quest to execute her husband King Charles I, so her choice of entertainments probably suffered due to her lack of popularity and reputation.

We now know that it was a failure in 1629 but what changed in 25 years? Well people had seen the women at Blackfriars and whilst they had rallied against it before they knew it worked better than watching boys playing girls. By the time the 1650s came around the Puritans were ruling the UK but the backlash against the rules they imposed against entertainment, especially by those who had been part of the Royal Court before the Civil Wars, had begun. Within four years the Monarchy would be back on the throne and the private theatres would be closed as the public ones would soon be reopened. In fact in 1662 the 'Merry Monarch' Charles II would make a decree that all female parts in plays must be played by women. So finally women were allowed on the stage and they had a Royal endorsement. It wasn't over though for equal rights in the theatre as female actors would continue to fight for over 300 years to be treated as respectable members of society for choosing the stage as their trade... but thats a tale for another day.