Someone Must Wash the Dishes: An Anti-Suffrage Satire

Ridgefield Library, 472 Main St, Ridgefield, CT | Get Directions »
FREE

Someone  Must  Wash  the  Dishes:  An  Anti-Suffrage  Satire with Actress Michele LaRue

On Sunday, January 22 from 2-:30pm, an anti-suffrage event titled, “Someone Must Wash the Dishes: An Anti-Suffrage Satire” will take place at the Ridgefield Library.  Many women fought against getting the vote in the early 1900s, but none with more charm, prettier clothes—and less logic—than the fictional speaker in this satiric monologue written by pro-suffragist Marie Jenney Howe, back in 1912.  “Woman suffrage is the reform against nature,” declares Howe’s unlikely, but irresistibly likeable, heroine.

“Ladies, get what you want. Pound pillows. Make a scene. Make home a hell on earth—but do it in a womanly way! That is so much more dignified and refined than walking up to a ballot box and dropping in a piece of paper!”
 
Reviewers have called this production “wicked” in its wit, and have labeled Michèle LaRue’s performance "side-splitting." An Illinois native, now based in New York, LaRue is a professional actress who tours nationally with a repertoire of shows by turn-of-the-previous-century American writers.

Pro-Suffragist Marie Jenney Howe wrote Someone Must Wash the Dishes  in 1912. Titled “An Anti-Suffrage Monologue,” it was published in 1913, by the National American Woman Suffrage Association (precursor of the League of Women Voters). This production was directed by Warren Kliewer for New Jersey’s The East Lynne Company—which he founded to revive American plays and literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Dishes premiered in March 1994, at New York City’s 4th-annual Women-kind Festival. Presenters in 13 states range from Chicago’s Newberry Library to New York’s Mohonk Mountain House, and include universities and colleges, museums and historical societies, women’s clubs, active adult communities, theatre companies, corporations, and conferences.

The performance will be followed by a short lecture that will put give the piece social and historical context.  This event is open to the public at no cost.

Co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters.  For more information about the league, please contact Birgitta Stone at inforlwv@gmail.com.  The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan political organization that encourages active participation in government and voting.

Visit www.ridgefieldlibrary.org to register or contact Lesley Lambton 203 438-2282 lalambton@ridgefieldlibrary.org.