Sylvia Plath's Three Women on Melbourne Stage

Sylvia Plath's "Three Women" will be performed on stage in Melbourne, Australia from 9 to 14 October 2012.

I am a great event.

I am dying as I sit. I lose a dimension.

I undo her fingers like bandages: I go.

"Highly intricate and with an uncompromising, confessional style, Sylvia Plath's "Three Women" is a decidedly multifaceted poem based on three very distinct experiences of pregnancy: becoming a first-time mother, trying to survive yet another loss of a child and the difficult choices of giving a child up for adoption.

"With special permission by the Estate of Sylvia Plath and Faber and Faber Ltd, Caged Birds Productions brings to stage Plath's only script, written one year before her untimely demise, whose delicately layered voices question existence, the ache of belonging and delve into shrouded emotional experiences of childbirth."

Below is information you need to know from the official media release!

Acclaimed poet Sylvia Plath, in her only script, delicately interweaves three uncompromisingly honest experiences of childbirth, miscarriage and adoption, expressing thoughts on pregnancy which, 50 years since written, remain universal yet rarely spoken. Marking the first time her estate and publishers have granted rights for an Australian performance, Caged Birds Productions presents Plath's "Three Women" at The Owl and the Pussycat, Richmond, during this year's Melbourne Fringe.

A 'poem for three voices' written as a radio drama in 1962, "Three Women" entwines three emotionally-driven monologues describing distinct experiences of pregnancy. The First Woman is an excited yet distressed first- time mother. The Second Woman experiences yet another late-term loss of child. The Third Woman is a young college student resolved to give her baby up for adoption. Each encapsulates the 'exquisite, heartbreaking quality' that novelist Joyce Carol Oates says 'has made Sylvia Plath our acknowledged Queen of Sorrows, the spokeswoman for our most private, most helpless nightmares.'

"Three Women" echoes Plath's own experiences of pregnancy: the birth of a daughter then son in 1960 and 1962 and a miscarriage in 1961. Within 6 months of "Three Women" being broadcast on BBC Radio in 1962, Plath committed suicide aged 30, with gas from the oven in her London home, her children left with milk and sealed off in an adjoining room.

Despite being Plath's only script, with each character capturing Plath’s confessional and highly empathetic voice; "Three Women" remains a little-known work. Since first staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London in 1973, "Three Women" has been performed only several times in the UK and US. On discovering the script, director Melanie Thomas immediately felt it resonated with her personal experiences of pregnancy and vocalised thoughts that, though many share them, are often left shrouded and left undiscussed. Determined to therefore bring "Three Women" to stage, this is the first known authorised production of the work in Australia.

"Three Women" (c) Estate of Sylvia Plath and reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd.

Dates: 9 - 14 October
Times: 8.30pm; Saturday 13 October 12.30pm and 8.30pm (50min)
Venue: The Owl and the Pussycat, 34 Swan St Richmond VIC 3121
Tickets: Full $20 / Concession $18
Bookings: Online at melbournefringe.com.au or call 03 9660 9666

CONTACT INFORMATION
Facebook Page

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
CREDITS
Written by Sylvia Plath
Director Melanie Thomas
Producer Jessica Morris Payne
Presented by Caged Birds Productions

First Woman Gabrielle Savrone
Second Woman Narda Shanley
Third Woman Carly Grayson

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