Conflicting Female Identities in Old Age: The Representation of Older Women in David Lindsay-Abaire’s Ripcord (pp. 87-105)
Inesa Shevchenko
Universidad de Lleida
Abstract
In the last decades, ageing has become one of the most important social issues to attract the attention of academics from the social sciences and the humanities. As an interdisciplinary research domain, ageing studies allow scholars to explore the meanings of old age through the various fields that intersect with it. As one of those intersections, theatre offers unquestionable opportunities to analyse its portrayals and to dispute the dominant “master narrative of decline” based on a vision of ageing as an inevitable biological, psychological and social decay (Gullette 2004). Despite the increasing interest of scholars in the analysis of old age in widely-acclaimed classical and contemporary plays, scant attention has been paid to the representation of older female characters in lesser known dramatic texts. While their thriving visibility in the contemporary plays is undeniable, the portrayal of older female characters is rather ambiguous as often based on ageist stereotypes. This paper offers a close reading of Ripcord, a comedy by the American playwright, lyricist and screenwriter, David Lindsay-Abaire, winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Rabbit Hole. Foregrounding issues of care related to senior living facilities, as well as aspects of old-age identity and of later-life creativity, this study interrogates liminal and stereotyped categorizations of older female characters in contemporary plays through one particular case study.
Keywords: ageing; theatre; gender; old-age identity; later-life creativity
Bionote
Inesa Shevchenko is a second year PhD research student within the Department of English and Linguistics in the University of Lleida. In December 2018, she received a pre-doctoral fellowship by the UdL which allows her to develop a research project about the representations of female ageing in contemporary dramatic texts within the English-speaking world. After legalizing her BA degree in English Philology (Ukraine), she obtained her MA in Secondary Education Teacher Training and Language Teaching. Nowadays, she is one of the group members of the research project “Ageing, Quality of Life and Creativity through Narrative” supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. She actively takes part in the research tasks of Grup Dedal-Lit, led by her PhD supervisor, Dr Núria Casado Gual, and offers technical support to the theatre workshop that Dr Casado devises and directs for students of English Studies of the University of Lleida.
e-mail address: inesa.shevchenko@udl.cat
References
Aston, Elaine. 1995. An Introduction to Feminism and Theatre. London and New York: Routledge.
Baars, Jan. 2012. Aging and the Art of Living. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Basting, Anne Davis. 1998. The Stages of Age: Performing Age in Contemporary American Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Bernard, Miriam and Lucy Munro. 2015. “Theatre and Ageing”. Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology. Eds. Julia Twigg and Wendy Martin. London and New York: Routledge: 61-68.
Billington, Michael. 2007. “Lifting the Curtain”. The Guardian, October 24, 2007. Web. <https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2007/oct/24/theatre1> [Accessed on May 28, 2020].
Broadway World. 2015. “Review Roundup: David Lindsay-Abaire’s Ripcord Opens Off-Broadway”. October 20, 2015. Web. <https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Review-Roundup-David-Lindsay-Abaires-RIPCORD-Opens-Off-Broadway-20151020> [Accessed on May 20, 2020].
Butler, Robert N. 1969. “Age-Ism: Another Form of Bigotry”. The Gerontologist, 9. 4: 1 (Winter): 243-246. Web. <https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/9.4_Part_1.243> [Accessed on May 17, 2020].
Byrski, Liz. 2014. “Conscientious Objections: Feminism, Fiction and the Phoney War on Ageing”. Ageing, Popular Culture and Contemporary Feminism: Harleys and Hormones. Eds. Imelda Whelehan and Joel Gwynne. Houndmills [etc]: Palgrave Macmillan: 14-28.
Casado Gual, Núria. 2019a. “Ageing as a Global Crisis: An Age-Centred Reading of The Children and Escaped Alone.” Paper presented at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research Annual Conference: Circles of Conversation, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 2-6, 2019.
———. 2019b. “Staging and Extending Age-wise Circles of Conversation: The Case of Three British Senior Theatre Companies.» Paper presented at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research Annual Conference: Circles of Conversation, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 2-6, 2019.
Chivers, Sally. 2012. “Reimagining Care: Images of Aging and Creativity in House Calls and A Year at Sherbrooke”. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 7. 2: 53-71. Web. <https://doi.org/10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.1272a3> [Accessed on May 13, 2020].
Chivers, Sally and Ulla Kriebernegg, eds. 2017. Care Homes Stories: Aging, Disability, and Long-Term Residential Care. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
Clark, Laura Hurd. 2008. “Older Women’s Bodies and the Self: The Construction of Identity in Later Life”. CRSA/RCSA, 38. 4: 441-464. Web. <https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-618X.2001.tb00981.x> [Accessed on May 20, 2020].
Cohen, Gene D. 2001. The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Cousin, Geraldine. 1996. Women in Dramatic Place and Time: Contemporary Female Characters on Stage. London: Routledge.
Cruikshank, Margaret. 2008. “Aging and Identity Politics”. Journal of Aging Studies, 22: 147-151. Web. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2007.12.011> [Accessed on May 20, 2020].
Curb, Rosemary K. 1985. “Re/cognition, Re/presentation, Re/creation in Woman-Conscious Drama: The Seer, the Seen, the Scene, the Obscene”. Theatre Journal, 37. 3: 302-316. Web. <https://www.jstor.org/stable/3206850?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents> [Accessed on May 14, 2020].
Culvell, Lori M. n.d. «The Role of the Clown in Shakespeare’s Theatre». Web: <https://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/iemls/shaksper/files/ROLE%20CLOWN.txt> [Accessed on May 28, 2020].
Dollinger, Stephen J. and Stephanie Clancy Dollinger. 2017. “Creativity and Identity”. The Creative Self: Effects of Beliefs, Self-Efficacy, Mindset, and Identity. Eds. Maciej Karwowski and James C. Kaufman. London: Academic Press: 49-64.
Fisher, Bradley J. and Diana K. Specht.1999. “Successful Aging and Creativity in Later Life”. Journal of Aging Studies. 13. 4 (Winter): 457- 472. Web. <https://doi.org/10.1016/S0890-4065(99)00021-3> [Accessed on May 20, 2020].
Fleming, Anne, Angela Kydd and Sally Stewart. 2017. “Care Homes: The Developing Ideology of a Homelike Place to Live”. Maturitas, 99: 92-97. Web. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2017.02.013> [Accessed on May 14, 2020].
Fox, Nick. 2015. “Creativity, Anti-Humanism and the ‘New Sociology of Art’”. Journal of Sociology, 51. 3: 522-536. Web. <https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783313498947> [Accessed on May 17, 2020].
Fuchs, Elinor. 2014. “Estragement: Towards an ‘Age Theory’ Theatre Criticism”. Performance Research. 19. 3: 69-77. Web: <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2014.935177> [Accessed on September 22, 2020].
Gallistl, Vera. 2018. “The Emergence of the Creative Ager – On Subject Cultures of Late-life Creativity”. Journal of Aging Studies, 46. September: 93-99. Web. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2018.07.002> [Accessed on May 28, 2020].
Gilleard, Chris and Paul Higgs. 2017. “An Enveloping Shadow? The Role of the Nursing Home in the Social Imaginary of the Fourth Age”. Care Homes Stories: Aging, Disability, and Long-Term Residential Care. Eds. Sally Chivers and Ulla Kriebernegg. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag: 229-246.
Goldman, Connie and Richard Mahler. 1995. Secrets of Becoming a Late Bloomer: Extraordinary Ordinary People on the Art of Staying Creative, Alive, and Aware in Midlife and Beyond. Center City: Hazelden.
Greer, Germaine. 1992. The Change: Women, Ageing and the Menopause. London: Penguin Books.
Gullette, Margaret Morganroth. 2004. Aged by Culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Haugland, Charles. n.d. “Comedy with a Throbbing Heart: David Lindsay-Abaire on Ripcord”. Huntington Theatre Company. Web. <https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/articles/ripcord-articles/Gallery/David-Lindsay-Abaire-on-Ripcord/> [Accessedon May 13, 2020].
Henderson, Julia. 2016. ““I’m an Old Fucking Woman as of Today”: Sally Clark’s Dramaturgies of Female Aging”. Age, Culture, Humanities, 3. Web. <https://ageculturehumanities.org/WP/im-an-old-fucking-woman-as-of-today-sally-clarks-dramaturgies-of-female-aging/> [Accessed on May 28, 2020].
Hickson, Joyce and Warren Housley. 1997. “Creativity in Later Life”. Educational Gerontology, 23. 6 September: 539-547. Web. <https://doi.org/10.1080/0360127970230604> [Accessed on May 22, 2020].
Holstein, Martha B. 2018. “On Being an Old Woman in Contemporary Society”. Generations, 41. 4: 6-11.
Karpen, Ruth Ray, Helen Q. Kivnick and Anne M. Wyatt-Brown. 2016. The Big Move: Life Between the Turning Points. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Katz, Stephen. 2014. “What Is Age Studies?” Age, Culture, Humanities, 1: 17-23. Web. <https://ageculturehumanities.org/WP/what-is-age-studies/> [Accessed on September 22, 2020].
Kunow, Rüdiger. 2010. “Old Age and Globalization”. A Guide to Humanistic Studies in Aging: What Does it Mean to Grow Old? Eds. Thomas R. Cole, Ruth E. Ray, and Robert Kastenbaum. Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press: 293-318.
Lipscomb, Valerie Barnes. 2012. ““The play’s the thing”: Theatre as a Scholarly Meeting Ground in Age Studies”. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 7. 2: 117-141. Web. <https://doi.org/10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.1272a6> [Accessed on May 21, 2020].
———. 2016. Performing Age in Modern Drama. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lindsay-Abaire, David. 2017. Ripcord. New York: Theatre Communication Group.
MacArthur, Michelle. 2015. Achieving Equity in Canadian Theatre: A Report with Best Practice Recommendations. Open Source – PGc. Web. <https://equityintheatre.com/sites/default/files/EIT%20Report%20-%20Executive%20Summary%20%20Highlights%20%281%29.pdf> [Accessed on May 22, 2020].
MacDonald, Barbara and Cynthia Rich. 2001. Look Me in the Eye: Old Women, Aging, and Ageism. Denver: Sprinters Ink Books.
Mangan, Michael. 2013. Staging Ageing: Theatre, Performance, and the Narrative of Decline. Bristol, UK and Chicago: Intellect.
Marshall, Leni. 2006. “Aging: A Feminist Issue”. NWSA Journal, 18. 1 Spring: vii-xiii. Project MUSE. Web. <https://muse.jhu.edu/article/195222/pdf> [Accessed on May 29, 2020].
McCormick, Sheila. 2017. Applied Theatre: Creative Ageing. London, New York: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.
Miller, Edward Alan, Ian Livingstone and Corina R. Ronneberg. 2017. “Media Portrayal of the Nursing Homes Sector: A Longitudinal Analysis of 51 U.S. Newspapers”. The Gerontologist, 57. 3 (1) June: 487–500. Web. <https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnv684> [Accessed on May 28, 2020].
Moore, Bridie. 2014. “Depth, Significance, and Absence: Age-Effects in New British Theatre”. Age, Culture, Humanities, 1: 163-195. Web. <https://ageculturehumanities.org/WP/depth-significance-and-absence-age-effects-in-new-british-theatre/>[Accessed on May 20, 2020].
Price, Kathryn A. and A. M. Tinker. 2014. “Creativity in Later Life”. Maturitas, 78: 281-286. Web. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2014.05.025> [Accessed on May 22, 2020].
Riley, Gina. 2018. “Creativity”. Salem Press Encyclopedia of Health. Web. <https://www.academia.edu/13056240/Creativity_Entry_in_Salem_Health_Psychology_and_Behavioral_Health> [Accessed on April 23, 2020].
Quilter, Deborah. 2015. “Aging Takes Center Stage On and Off Broadway”. Next Avenue. November 16, 2015. Web. <https://www.nextavenue.org/aging-takes-center-stage-on-and-off-broadway/> [Accessed on May 13, 2020].
Reckwitz, Andreas. 2017. The Invention of Creativity: Modern Society and the Culture of the New. Cambridge: Polity.
Sontag, Susan. 1972. “The Double Standard of Aging”. The Saturday Review, September 23: 29-38. Web. <shorturl.at/dqX03> [Accessed on May 29, 2020].
Struthers, James. 2017. “Home, Hotel, Hospital, Hospice: Conflicting Images of Long-Term Residential Care in Ontario, Canada”. Care Homes Stories: Aging, Disability, and Long-Term Residential Care. Eds. Sally Chivers and Ulla Kriebernegg. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag: 283-302.
Swinnen, Aagje and Cynthia Port. 2012. “Aging, Narrative, and Performance: Essays from the Humanities”. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life, 7. 2: 9-15. Web. <https://doi.org/10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.1272a1> [Accessed on September 22, 2020].
Switzky, Lawrence. 2016. “Introduction: Modern Drama, Aging, and the Life Course”. Modern Drama, Special Issue: Aging and the Life Course, 59. 2: 135-142.
Woodward, Kathleen. 1991. Aging and Its Discontents: Freud and Other Fictions. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Zeman, Marija Geiger, Zdenko Zeman and Mirela Holy. 2017. “A New Home, A New Beginning, A New Identity: Old Age, Life Narrative and Self-Presentation in the Novel The Real Captain’s Sea by Zvonko Todorovski.” Care Homes Stories: Aging, Disability, and Long-Term Residential Care. Eds. Sally Chivers and Ulla Kriebernegg. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag: 247-264.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
