Theatre Live! for Older Women

The Stage reports that of the six plays that have been written for the new live theatre series for Sky Arts, called Theatre Live!, three of them feature an all-women cast, and many of the roles call for older actresses.

At least one of the writers, the debut playwright Kate Mosse, said she was inspired to focus her play on a group of women over 50, after reading about the current campaign to highlight the lack of opportunities for older female performers.

"I have noticed a lot of pieces in the paper about people saying older women don't get cast, and then lots of people coming back saying, 'We really would if people were writing stuff for older women that isn't just somebody's granny or whatever'," she said. "I realised when I came to thinking about the play that it is a really good point. You can't cast older women if people are not writing for them. So I decided to deliberately write for women in their late fifties."

She added: "I thought this is my chance to write a piece actively for older women, who are not there as somebody's grandmother or because they have Alzheimer's. They are just women who are older."