International Women’s Day Events at Exeter Phoenix
Published February 26, 2025
Here at Exeter Phoenix, we are proud to offer a programme filled with events that celebrate and champion women creatives, artists and industry leaders, creating a platform that enables expression for women in the arts.
From female-led theatre performances, to workshops that explore influential artists, join us to celebrate International Women’s Day 2025 – and beyond.
Highlights
The Grimm Sisters | Mon 17 Mar
Women + Wildness workshop | Mon 10 Mar
Inspired by the textiles of Chilean Arpilleristas | Sat 08 Mar
Emily Breeze | Sat 15 Mar
International Women’s Festival | Sat 15 Mar
SWWAG: South West Women’s Art Group On until Wed 12 Mar
A Q+A with Scratchworks
On Monday 10 March, Scratchworks are hosting a Women + Wildness creative workshop.
Scratchworks Theatre CIC are a female-led theatre company based in Exeter who work collaboratively to create thought-provoking, funny, and heartfelt shows to inspire and empower adults and children alike with our feminist ethos, with playfulness, vulnerability and a dash of silliness.
Our performance programmer Katy caught up with them to find out more about the workshop.
Tell us a bit about your Women + Wildness Creative Workshop and what you hope participants will take away from it.
The theme ‘Wildness’ can sometimes feel very alien for Women, and feel very separate from the practicalities and restrictions of day to day life. The unspoken rules around gender in society have encouraged women’s voices to be silenced, value to be overlooked and power to be lessened. By taking inspiration from the freedom, force and ferocity of nature, this workshop aims to encourage all women to start to find a version of wildness that is unique to them, and to celebrate that wildness loudly. Activities will range from collaging, singing, creative writing and theatre exercises. You don't need to have any previous theatre or performing experience either, just a willingness to give it a go!
The company’s mission statement proudly declares that it is through a “feminist ethos” that you create thought-provoking, funny, and heartfelt shows which inspire and empower adults and children alike. How does feminism manifest in your upcoming show Grimm Sisters and how does this translate to an intergenerational audience?
The idea for The Grimm Sisters came from our research around the origins of the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales. We discovered that a lot of the stories that the brothers gathered came from listening to the women around them telling stories to each other. Also, although women were allowed to write in the 1800s, it was frowned upon and pursuing a writing career was considered 'socially inappropriate'. So we developed these sister characters to embody and celebrate all the women whose stories were exchanged verbally, but who never got credit for their ideas. Audience interaction is also a very important part of the work we make, and throughout the show, the audience are encouraged to provide suggestions and story ideas to create new stories with us at every show. This means that no matter who you are, we encourage all our audiences to flex their storytelling muscles! We're so looking forward to bringing the Grimm Sisters back to Exeter next month!
'The Grimm Sisters fizzes with the fun of storytelling' The PRSD Review