Female nudity on stage

Well, those seem to be two completely different things.


I'm not talking about the artistic intentions/aims/impact of nudity from the audience perspective, but of the practical behind-the-scenes realities of stripping being the accepted norm in an industry where there is such a huge problem with off-stage (financial and sexual) exploitation and lack of boundaries or recourse.

I respect Crompton's work but she is not an actor. Her job is not dependent on her willingness to strip and it's doubtful she's ever been in a situation where her boss has screamed at her to get her tits out.

Sounds as if Equus and Steaming were essential programming in that place at that time for many people. Today, they'd attract much the same disinterest as everything else. As did Mrs Henderson Presents.

This was recreated in the tv series of the book on the BBC this year or last. Which I found rather too amusing.

I feel this is subjective. Theatre is not a place for censorship or faux offence and outrage at something common - nudity. I'd like to think people who go and see plays tailored towards adults can stomach a bit of nudity (no pun intended) without rushing home to their laptops and writing articles along the lines of "this has to stop". 

But hey, if homogeneous, politically correct, magnolia theatre is your thing...

Think the most gratuitous nudity I can remember seeing is in "The Wolf from the Door" at the Royal Court Upstairs, where the young male lead stripped off and stood around stark naked for several minutes, for no apparent reason.

There was an interesting discussion in (I think) David Weston's follow-up to "Covering McKellen" where he talked about the phenomenon of fringe productions featuring nudity because that tended to increase the ticket sales, and young actors (of either gender) feeling pressured to appear naked in such productions.

I think it must have been on the old board where someone described sitting at the front of the National for "Peer Gynt" and having a naked cast member bending over directly in their eyeline - the phrase "It was like they were winking at me" stuck in my mind forever

This is really two different debates in one thread.

The use and importance of nudity from an audience/artistic perspective is imo a different debate from the realities of what a (male-dominated, known to have a gender problem) culture that normalises naked female flesh does to women working in that culture.

From an artistic pov and as an audience member, I have no problem with nudity and agree it can be used to great affect. There are valid artistic justifications for nudity.

But as a woman who's worked in theatre for years, who has been sexually assaulted, groped and propositioned by directors, who's been screamed at by a household name to "show off your p*ssy!"; as a woman who's had to employ and try to maintain authority over men much older than myself who have seen me naked; as someone who's worked with and heard the stories from literally hundreds of women in theatre over the years, I cannot divorce what the audience sees from what happens behind the scenes.

I am not anti-nudity. The industry has problems that go a lot deeper than this, and it's those root problems that need to be fixed. But we can't talk about nudity in theatre without acknowledging that what happens onstage does not exist in a vacuum.


But that marginalises the (often very young and green) actors who are pressured into things they do not want to do, and ignores the gendered power dynamic and the relationship between this and the problems of financial exploitation and a work culture that expects early-career actors to work for free.

There is a big difference between a famous actress with loads of offers going nude in the West End, and a drama school graduate working two jobs being pressured to go nude for an unpaid pub fringe because she feels she has no other choice. The cultural attitude that if you are an actress you must be willing to exploit your body definitely influences a culture where abuse can flourish. And some directors exploit the artistic justifications for onstage nudity for their own ends. For example directors who insist on actresses stripping nude in auditions (and then the finished play doesn't even have any nudity in it!), even directors insisting actresses have sex with them as part of being Method and if they refuse they are prudish and not willing to take artistic risks blah blah blah. These things do happen. What do we do about it? Well, not by banning nudity, but by reasoned debate about all the various issues and factors involved both onstage and off.

Agreed. However, this is not a sexual-patriarchal epidemic. Just because something is risque doesn't mean it's the product of exploitation. The sexual abuse in amateur theatre, I believe, should be dealt with differently, and not associated with professional theatre at all. 

In pop culture, pop stars are open with the fact that they objectify and sexualise themselves; it's mostly journalists who peddle this idea that female pop stars are oppressed by men.  Disregarding the sexual side to this, actors need incredible self-discipline - "your body is your tool" - and all that. 

It sounds so crass to talk so superficially but that is part of choosing a career where you work in the public eye. Having said all that, there can never be enough safeguards and legal support for people who feel they are being exploited. 

I saw Steaming all those years ago. It was v good and the nudity kinda essential. I saw Judas Kiss both times it played. Second time much better and the nudity was entertaining tho' not really essential except to show Wilde's indifference I suppose. I saw a play with Roger Allam at Hampstead where the student takes off her top, no bra and this was absolutely not needed. If anyone can act sleaze without the props Allam can so they didn't have to get this young actress's kit off at all. Just saying.

Indeed @baemax just yesterday I was shouted at from a passing car while out running (in, not that it mattered clothes that covered me from ankle to neck and to the wrists) those of us who dip a toe into online dating frequently get asked for naked pictures and/or asked to do sexual acts before we even meet a man, on TV we see women reduced to body parts and it just gets wearing.

I'm all for the actual artistic use of the naked body as much as any other 'theatrical device' and I agree men are also objectified, just that on stage, as in life it's much much less often.

I agree with you about Mrs Henderson Presents.

Generally, I think I've seen more male than female nudity on stage over the years. So I was surprised at the original assertion that there was more female than male nudity anyway.

There's an interesting reaction piece on The Stage, here: www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2016/amber-massie-blomfield-we-need-more-female-nudity-not-less/

I'm another one who has seen far more male than female nudity on stage. Anyone else see Song From Far Away? 80 minute play, about 40 of them naked.

I actually think that the more often you se naked people on stage, the less it becomes something tittilating. It's when you don't see nudity very often that the slightest hint of it causes a huge fuss - which is the situation we have in cinema with male nudity. It's ridiculous.

Of course nudity in theatre should not be used as an excuse for sexual harassment of actors - male or female.