Her Naked Skin

Her Naked Skin is a 2008 play by Rebecca Lenkiewicz. It is often incorrectly noted as the first play by a female writer to be produced on the Olivier Stage at London's Royal National Theatre where it premiered on 24 July 2008. In reality it is the third play by a female writer to be produced there, and the first original play by a female writer, as the first two were adaptations: Pam Gems's adaptation of The Seagull in 1991, and Helen Edmundson's Coram Boy in 2005. The premiere was directed by Howard Davies. In an interview, the National's director Nicholas Hytner stated "[Lenkiewicz's] new play ... will take its place in the Olivier rep alongside work by Shaw, Middleton and Tony Harrison."

Plot

The play is set during British women's struggle for the vote in the early 20th century, beginning with a suffragette committing suicide at the Derby and ending with the outbreak of World War I. It is centred on a love-affair between two fictional suffragettes, one upper-class (played in the premiere by Lesley Manville) and the other working-class (played in the premiere by Jemima Rooper).