First play at The Globe Theatre by a woman is Bournemouth author Nell Leyshon's (From Bournemouth Echo)

First play at The Globe Theatre by a woman is Bournemouth author Nell Leyshon's

9:00am Friday 5th March 2010 in

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BOURNEMOUTH author and playwright Nell Leyshon is set to make history when the famous Globe Theatre in London stages its first ever play written by a woman.

Shakespeare’s original Globe opened in 1599 but burnt down in 1613, at which time it was still illegal for women to appear on stage, let alone pen plays.

The reconstructed Globe Theatre in London’s Bankside opened 14 years ago but Nell’s play, entitled Bedlam, is the first it has commissioned from a woman writer.

“It’s symbolic of the way women writers have started to be taken seriously,” said Nell, 48, from Southbourne, who already has a string of successes to her name. She is the author of the novel Black Dirt (which was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize and the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize), wrote the acclaimed novel Devotion and is a winner of the Evening Standard Newcomer of the Year theatre award.

She has also seen her play Comfort Me With Apples debut in London and her 2007 adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Don’t Look Now opened in Sheffield before transferring to the Lyric in London.

This year alone she has been working on four or five plays, including one for the National Theatre.

Last month she spent a week in Plymouth with a group of teenagers and the mission to write a play in a single week, and she’s been busy working on a project with the Royal Court Theatre on a play about Romany folk and travellers.

But Bedlam is a big play for the big space that is the Globe’s large open-air emporium. “It’s about Bethlem, that was Bethlem lunatic asylum and is now Bethlehem hospital.

“I’ve fictionalised it with a cast of characters. Including a country girl from Dorset who is locked up there... and is very beautiful.”

Nell is delighted to be involved with the Globe Theatre. “When you fall for it you really love it,” said Nell, “The Globe’s just has a very exciting atmosphere. There’s something magical – it’s just joy and fun.”

Her play, Bedlam, is written but still being fine-tuned prior to the opening in September.

And her next novel?

“Everything’s been on the back-burner,” she confessed.

“When I’ve finished all my deadlines I’ll take a holiday... and then have a think.”