13 items

• Feminist Stages Book Cover & Photo (1996)
  
  1. This shows the cover of the Contemporary Theatre Studies book called Feminist Stages. Tasha Fairbanks from Siren is interviewed in the book and discusses why gender and sexuality matter so much to her. 2. This shows a photo from the book of Jude Winter from Siren in 'Pulp' (1985).
• Photo of all five Siren members (1984)
  
  This shows a photo of all of Siren members; Jude Winter, Deb Trethewey, Tash Fairbanks, Hilary Ramsden and Jane Boston.
• Photos from Curfew
  
  A collection of images from Siren's show 'Curfew'. 1. This shows a photo of Jane Boston as Charlene and Tasha Fairbanks as Tracey in ‘Curfew’. 2. This shows a photo of Jude Winter and Tasha Fairbanks in ‘Curfew’. 3. This shows a photo of Jude Winter, Tasha Fairbanks and Jane Boston in ‘Curfew’.
• Photos from From the Divine
  
  A collection of images from Siren's show 'From the Divine'. 1. This shows a photo of Tasha Fairbanks as Harry, together with the ventriloquist’s dummy, also called Harry. Tasha learnt ventriloquism from a book she took out of the library, leading up to the show. In most of the plays, it was mainly Tasha who cross-dressed to take the male parts. 2. This shows two photos from the contact sheet of photos of “From the Divine’. The first is of Jude Winter as Lily dancing with Tasha Fairbanks as Harry. The second is of Jane Boston as Ruby, with Tasha Fairbanks and Jude Winter. Although Siren always requested the return of their photos, this often did not happen, leaving the company without the original prints, hence the use of the contact sheet to show some of the images. 3. This shows a photo from the contact sheet of photos of ‘From the Divine’. It is over Jude Winter as Lily the ‘sweet good girl,’ dancing to the music of Jane Boston as Ruby, the ‘naughty bad girl’, as women were often portrayed during the war. Siren began embracing glamour for this play, leaving behind much of the agitprop look of the earlier shows.
• Photos from Hotel Destiny
  
  A collection of images from Siren's play 'Hotel Destiny'. 1. This shows a photo of Jane Boston as ‘Blame’. 2. The photos show Siren members Jude Winter and Hilary Ramsden on-stage and off-stage. Both Hilary and Jude were prone to ‘corpsing’ on stage and off stage, enjoying each other’s performance rather too much! (Colour photo taken by unknown photographer). 3. This shows the full cast of ‘Hotel Destiny; Tash Fairbanks as Chance, Hilary Ramsden as Miss Evans, Jude Winter as Rough and Jane Boston as Blame. 4. This shows Jane Boston as Blame and Tash Fairbanks as Chance.
• Photos from Now Wash Your Hands Please
  
  A collection of images from Siren's show 'Now Wash Your Hands Please'. 1. This shows a photo for ‘Now Wash Your Hands Please’. Pictured from left to right Jude Winter as P.R, Hilary Ramsden as Phyllis, and Tasha Fairbanks as Polly. 2. This shows a photo of Jude Winter as P.R and Tasha Fairbanks as Bert, dressed in a train conductor's uniform. 3. This shows a photo of Jude Winter as P.R. and Tash Fairbanks as Bert in a train conductor's uniform, wrapped in toilet roll.
• Photos from Pulp
  
  A collection of images from Siren's show 'Pulp'. 1. This shows a photo of Hilary Ramsden as Kay in ‘Pulp”. 2. This shows a photo of Jane Boston as Magda and Jude Winter as Heddy in ‘Pulp’. 3. This shows a photo of the full cast of ‘Pulp’; Jude Winter as Heddy, Jane Boston as Magda, Hilary Ramsden as Kay, Tashha Fairbanks as Dolores.
• Pulp and Other Plays (1996)
  
  1.This shows the cover of a book of three plays by Siren; Curfew, Pulp and Now Wash Your Hands Please. The cover is a photo of Jude Winter as Wonder Woman in the play Curfew. "After Siren had stopped performing, many academics published books on early feminist lesbian theatre in the UK. Key academic feminist theatre historians, Elaine Aston and Gabrielle Griffin interviewed the members of Siren for the book. Siren, at the time of Pulp, was Jane Boston, Tash Fairbanks, Hilary Ramsden, Jude Winter and Debra Trethewey. This book is still available to purchase in a variety of bookshops and online." 2. This is the frontispiece for the play Curfew, devised by Siren, scripted by Tasha Fairbanks, which opened at The Nightingale Theatre, Brighton 1982. It was directed by the company. It also shows the frontispiece for the play ‘Now Wash Your Hands Please’, scripted by Tasha Fairbanks from discussion and workshops with Siren. The play opened at The Nightingale Theatre, Brighton in 1984. It was directed by Sue Saunders. "Siren was joined by a new actor, Hilary Ramsden for the play, Now Wash Your Hands Please. She remained as part of Siren until the company disbanded in 1990." 3. This describes the set as a giant toilet seat. 4. Photo credit Dianne Ceresa This shows a photograph of Jane Boston as Charlene, Jude Winter as Fi and Tasha Fairbanks as Tracey from the play Curfew, which opened at The Nightingale Theatre, Brighton in 1982. "The play ‘Curfew’ is set in the future in a lesbian club. The set, which was designed by Deb Trethewey, was a cage-like child’s climbing frame, indicating women were getting nowhere. The only other design feature onstage was a large black box with a bright X shaped light, set up high, and was there to remind women that everything was forbidden unless sanctioned by men. The play opened in 1982, a few years before Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale was published." 5. Photo credit Anita Corbin This shows a photo of Tasha Fairbanks as Dolores from the play Pulp. It was directed by Noelle Janaczewska and opened at The Drill Hall in London in 1985. "As with Curfew, Pulp dealt with the issue of how you live as a lesbian in a society that vilifies homosexuality. As research for Pulp, Siren read a lot of lesbian pulp fiction from the ‘50s (no hardship there!). The novels were full of transgressive, obsessive lesbians and their, almost always, disastrous liaisons, played out in dim basement bars."
• Siren Band Gig - Jude & Jane
  
  This shows one of the very early band gigs of Siren with Jude Winter and Jane Boston.
• Siren Theatre Company Brighton Leader Newspaper Article (1987)
  
  Digital scan of a Brighton Leader Newspaper Article about a Siren performance of their play 'Hotel Destiny' at The Nightingale in Brighton, 1987. This shows a photo of Jane Boston as the character ‘Chance’ in Siren’s play ‘Hotel Destiny’. The photo was taken by Anita Corbin (but the photo is not of Ms Corbin, as wrongly described). The preview was for the opening of ‘Hotel Destiny’ at the Nightingale Theatre in Brighton.
• Spare Rib and The Stage reviews of ‘Curfew’.
  
  Two reviews about the play ‘Curfew’ when it opened at the Oval House Theatre, London. The review at the top of the image is from 'Spare Rib', published in March 1982. It features a photo of Jane Boston as Calamity Jane. The review at the bottom of the photo is from 'The Stage', published in February 1982.
• Spare Rib review of ‘From the Divine ‘
  
  Digital reproduction of the cover of Spare Rib, and the review of Siren’s show ‘From the Divine’. The reviewer, Liz Horsfield, writes that Lily is far more interested in Ruby [or}“is it me being a lesbian that makes me think so?” No matter how ‘out’ Siren was as a company, it perhaps wasn’t always obvious to the audience or reviewers.
• Spare Rib Review of Siren's 'Pulp'
  
  The play opened at the Drill Hall in London for 2 weeks in 1985 and was sold out every night. It returned to the Drill Hall in January 1986,. Manny describes Pulp as "a feminist play par excellence, brilliantly acted, refreshing, hilariously entertaining".