Joann Condon made her Edinburgh Fringe debut with The Last Laugh in 1991. Now she returns after 34 years later with her new show Litle Boxes, Big Truths. We asked her to reflect on issues that women face in theatre and television. Her response provides a daunting insight into the continuing gender and age disparity in showbusiness.
When you hit middle age.....the industry doesn’t see you or your work as valuable
It’s a common story; most of us have metaphorically been 'put in boxes' to meet societal expectations based on age, gender, background or personal traits. It’s called social categorisation by psychologists, but for most of us it’s simply being judged. And that judgement has a way of limiting our behaviours, aspirations and ultimately our achievements. This remains especially true for women.
From a young age, girls continue to be conditioned to conform to ideals of femininity: be quiet, submissive, and follow the rules. Breaking these gender stereotypes can create negative connotations limiting girls from stepping out or speaking up. The boxes continue through adolescence and into adulthood and social media enhances the stereotypes, with anyone having the power to label a woman as too fat, too skinny, too stupid, too old, too young or just treat them as a sexualised commodity.
Media representations reinforce this further, often portraying women in stereotypical roles: the mother, the lover, the damsel in distress, but almost worse than this is the virtual disappearance of women who don’t classically fit the mould. Enter (or leave as the case may be) the 50 to 70-year-old woman.
Women of this age don’t fit the gender stereotypes, and are often judged harshly, reflecting societal ageism. I have experienced this first hand. After graduating drama school at age 21 I started building my career in theatre and TV, landing regular roles in hit British comedies and sitcoms such as Little Britain, Harry Hill’s Shark infested Custard, Edge of Heaven and Cradle to Grave. Then, as I entered my late 40s the work started to dry up. It’s a shocking realisation that when you hit middle age, a time-when women feel more comfortable in their skin, and have life experience, the industry doesn’t see you or your work as valuable.
And this is not just a feeling. The Geena Davis Institute published a study which showed that male characters aged over 50 out-numbered females: 80% in films and 75% in TV in the US. The number is two to one in British films. Unfortunately, this story is similar for theatre, where fewer plays are written about older women – creating a vicious circle when it comes to available roles. This is despite audiences wanting to see more authentic representations of aging with middle-aged women being under recognised as a valid audience.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way, but it does take a conscious effort to recognise the 'boxes' and challenge them. It was this realisation that led me to create my solo-show, Little Boxes. I couldn’t just wait around for things to happen. I’ve looked at other opportunities, but I’ve always wanted to do a one-woman show in Edinburgh, so I made the commitment, wrote it down and here we are. It’s not been an easy journey, but it has been fun. I’ve been scoffed at along the way, and that only made me more determined to prove that I’m not over the hill.
As a young girl growing up in the East End of London I had my life mapped out for me by others. I was body-shamed and boxed up to be married and (if lucky), a bank clerk. I wanted to act. But people wrote me off – thought the only thing I was fit for was leaving school and spending the rest of my life doing a boring desk job.
It wasn’t until I had my own children that I started to realise how limiting other people’s judgements can be. I really started thinking about my boxes when I saw my three-year-old starting to be put in them herself, especially when she said she wanted to be a boy not a girl. This made me look at the boxes I have been put into and I knew I had to break out of those first to make sure she could be as free as possible.
In Little Boxes I share my story by rummaging through a lifetime of boxes, all while challenging the audience to reflect on their own boxes and the ones they have created for others – encouraging them to explore them and get out of the ones that are constraining.
Breaking free of the boxes requires challenging stereotypes, advocating for representation, and creating narratives that recognise women as full, multifaceted, complex human beings. After all, the best boxes are full of surprises.
