Albert Temporal Delgado

NIUB 16145625
Essay on Martin Crimp, Attempts on Her Life
Mary Luckhurst claims that, in Attempts on her Life, “Anne is clearly an interrogative
device deployed to expose misogyny and exploitation of women, both institutionally and
internationally, with corporate mentalities in first world countries implicated before
anyone else” (2003: 55).

Do you agree with this assertion? Describe the strategies (formal, theatrical, textual,
etc.) whereby the play denounces and satirises globalisation and the exploitation of
women.

Please substantiate your arguments by close reference to the play, the contexts from
which it emerged and a minimum of two essays from the Virtual Campus that you
consider relevant.

The role of women inside Patriarchal Capitalism

This study will examine the play of Attempts on Her Life, written by Martin Crimp, one

of the most important representations in British theatre related to the reflections of

capitalism on human life and social structure, along with the figure of women. The play

was written at a time when materialism and capitalism were vividly present in the

society and people were pumped through the media. Concerning the basic patriarchal

pressures in England, where women can be a little more influential in the field of work

than the rest of the world, Crimp tells the story of Ann, who has no voice of her own,

and how she surrenders to the patriarchal capitalist system. The play has provided an

extreme narrative to the audience.

Patriarchal capitalism, which perceives women as cheap labour force, has played

puppets with women conditions, salary and interests. The patriarchal society supressed

women rights, proved that it was not important they were in negative working

conditions or in excess of working hours. Initially, this situation was not mentioned by

women or was opposed by very few people and the perception that the female labour

force could easily be displaced at any time, attracted the attention of capital due to the
 Albert Temporal Delgado
NIUB 16145625
Essay on Martin Crimp, Attempts on Her Life
view that women's labour force could be employed more easily and cheaply in flexible,

informal production processes. Adding what Aleks Sierz says, “Michael Billington saw

Anne as basically a vehicle for the writer’s moral rejection of a selfish, materialist

civilisation based on consumer fetishism”. What’s more, the media monopoly has

brought women to the forefront screen sexualizing its image in the last 40 years, seen in

television and commercials. With the principle of “sexuality sells”, a second-class entity

consisting of a commodified body, a puppet, which can be easily purchased or made

with money, can be made into a figure by the character of Ann Crimp’s play.

In Attempts on Her Life, women's place in the modern patriarchal society, the social

and psychological problems they face and centuries of sovereignty efforts are the main

give the main topics of the play. Crimp demonstrates that, thanks to the perspective of

the British society, which is revealed by the language and the voice of the woman, she

has included not only Theater in her face but also post-modernism. According to Vicky

Angelaki, “She is everywhere and nowhere, in multiple conceptualizations that cause

her identity to fluctuate wildly”. During the play, Ann has taken on many different

names and even objects, sometimes has become a little girl, sometimes an ashtray or

even a car brand and can be everywhere in seconds. In literature, especially when it is

considered that nature is identified with women, Ann appears as a tree and is advertised

as a marketable product in a refined language by four advertisers who are the

representatives of capitalist media in the play. Throughout the play, what has been

learned, narrated, and conveyed to the audience reflects the whole society's view of

women.

Produced by Martin Crimp, Attempts on Her Life describes the oppression of the

patriarchal society and the writers' opposition to the social structure committed to their
 Albert Temporal Delgado
NIUB 16145625
Essay on Martin Crimp, Attempts on Her Life
self, including the consequences and solutions. The narrative in the last scene of Crimp's

play, the ongoing narratives of what would have happened if Ann had been free and had

all her dreams, what she deserved and what she could have done fulfilled, would have

revealed the imaginary world that would arise when men and women had equal

conditions. This play seems to be nothing more than a joint work that conveys a

universal message of equality that cannot be confined to time and space with its

narratives, stories and finals, and rises to the position of a powerful defender of

feminism.
 Albert Temporal Delgado
NIUB 16145625
Essay on Martin Crimp, Attempts on Her Life

WORKS CITED

 Aleks Sierz, The Theatre of Martin Crimp,Page

London, 2006, Bloomsbury, page 52.

 Vicky Angelaki, The Plays of Martin Crimp, Making Theatre

Strange,

University of Birmingham, 2012, Page 54