First performed in 1983 at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, followed by the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London (Aston, 1995, 128) Masterpieces (1991) presented a play exposing the very depths of the pornography industry and its’ influence upon the treatment of women in society. From the producers, actresses and owners of pornography to the consumers, Daniels provides a perception from every angle on the pornography debate. Challenging the connection between pornography and its’ influence upon violence and misogyny in society, Daniels presents Rowena, the play’s central protagonist, who as the play progresses develops a deeper understanding of the true extent of the pornography industry and its’ misogynistic foundations in society. Following her first encounter of a pornographic magazine which her friend Yvonne confiscates from a male student, to watching the mutilation and murder of a female actress in a violently pornographic nineteen seventies ‘Snuff film’ (Dictionary.com, 2021), Rowena becomes increasingly frustrated by the sexism and misogyny which accompanies the extreme sexual violence that Snuff films portray. In turn, this results in Rowena pushing a man in front of a train when he attempts to harass her as a means of self-defence; a concept challenged in every aspect of the legal and medical field which she is subjected to as a female criminal.
Introducing an array of characters who are contrasted against each other, we are presented with the misinformed and misogynistic male characters and female characters who are victims of their own gender. Daniels not only represents multiple characters’ diverse opinions toward pornography and the characters’ consumption of it, but Daniels also highlights the societal ideologies of gender with an emphasis of the connection between both gender and violence, and their influence upon pornography, drawing criticism towards its’ misogynistic basis that its’ producers and consumers capitalise from. Daniels addresses the deeper connection between the objectification and mistreatment of women in society, as influenced by the violence and misogyny portrayed both within pornography, but also in the relationships between male and female characters and the very foundations of nineteen eighties British society. Sarah Daniels’ theatrical approach in Masterpieces towards sexism, violence against women, and gender, both within society and in the pornography industry, therefore emphasise feminist ideologies and concepts. Feminist theatre scholar, Elaine Aston regards Masterpieces as both a “radical-feminist exploitation of pornography as a source of ‘male power’ and an examination of the possible effects it has on the lives of women” (Aston, 1995, 129), and so making it a female experience-based performance and thus feminist play.
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