Sylvia - Old Vic

Ha ha, I know what you mean. I've had to deal with my own feelings about that lol.

Some spoilers follow. . .

On the one hand, it's like, why are you having our protagonist hook up with an "old man" (26 years her senior, even more of an age difference, in real life, than between Gaumond and Rose), and apparently share so much credit for the women's suffrage movement with him? Doesn't that embed a patriarchal-type "ick" feeling into the fibres of a show where all the credit for suffrage rightfully belongs with the women?

On the other hand, the relationship is the real deal. Sylvia not only had this relationship with Hardie, but she was proudly shameless about her relationship with him, including pop song style lyrics in her letters to him (eg "I don't want anyone but you but I want you so"), with him writing back to her about "the pressure of my arms around you" and referring to her as "Little Sweetheart" lol! And, after his death, she sent the National Portrait Gallery paintings she made of him, cos she was upset they didn't have any of him, in which she fully depicts every wrinkle of his age lol.

And truth is, there is something wonderful about the way Hardie committed himself so heavily to Women's Suffrage, almost at the expense of everything else, and took a lot of stick for it from other politicians, including those in his own party. In real life, sometimes we actually are "stronger together," even when the facts muddy what could otherwise be a pristine narrative about powerful women doing it for themselves.

The narrative remains one about powerful women, of course, but also one that acknowledges that powerful women are smart enough to utilise allies among powerful men if it helps realise their ambitions. And, ahem, powerful women can also choose love lives with whoever they want.

5 years ago, John Dagleish's Hardie looked younger, wearing a much smaller beard, than Gaumond looks wears now, so the ick-factor felt less. But it is Gaumond's beard that looks like the one in the real Sylvia's portraits at the Portrait Gallery!

And Gaumond is terrific in the role, rapping his convictions, with conviction, yet always giving Rose's Sylvia the respect and stage space she earns and deserves.

I think that by including real life facts, that somewhat muddy a potentially more pristine and focused anti-patriarchal narrative, the show honours more of the real Sylvia's humanity and complexity, and helps her earn her name above the title.

Also, her siding with Hardie, and the Labour Party's socialist principles, does contrast nicely with her mother, Emmeline, who ultimately ran for office as a candidate for the Conservative Party. Pankhurst infighting is a defining, and fascinating part of the plot, after all.