Performing women : stand-ups, strumpets and itinerants

Alison Oddey's interviews with prominent performing women, span generations, cultures, perspectives, practice and the best part of the 20th century, telling various stories collectively.

Stand ups, "classic" actresses, film and television personalities, experimental and "alternative" practitioners discuss why they want to perform, what motivates them, and how their personal history has contributed to their desires to perform.

Oddey's critical and analytical introductory essay examines themes of performers' identities, displacement, acting as playing, differences between theatre, film and television performance, attitudes towards and relationships with audiences, and working with women directors.

In several interviews the additional challenge of motherhood emerges as an important subtext in the performing lives of these women.