Skip to main

Impact case study database

The impact case study database allows you to browse and search for impact case studies submitted to the REF 2021. Use the search and filters below to find the impact case studies you are looking for.

Search and filter

Filter by

  • University of St Andrews
   None selected
  • 27 - English Language and Literature
   None selected
   None selected
   None selected
   None selected
   None selected
   None selected
Waiting for server
Download currently selected sections for currently selected case studies (spreadsheet) (generating)
Download currently selected case study PDFs (zip) (generating)
Download tags for the currently selected case studies (spreadsheet) (generating)
Currently displaying text from case study section
Showing impact case studies 1 to 3 of 3
Submitting institution
University of St Andrews
Unit of assessment
27 - English Language and Literature
Summary impact type
Cultural
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?
No

1. Summary of the impact

Still from episode 5 of BBC’s Five Fables, ‘The Fox, the Wolf and the Farmer’

Embedded image Drawing on their research in medieval poetry, Jones and Johnson collaborated with media companies in adapting Seamus Heaney’s translations of medieval Scottish poet Robert Henryson for TV and app. This work (1) resulted in co-production of new cultural artefacts; (2) made accessible and interpreted an historically remote but important figure in the literary heritage of Scotland; (3) contributed to the economic prosperity of an innovative digital publishing company. Further, media appearances and workshops by Jones (4) increased understanding of and participation in our medieval literary heritage; and (5) contributed to the economic viability of a literary festival. Collaboration by Jones on an interactive, digital version of a thousand-year-old riddle (6) led to increased cultural participation with medieval poetry during lockdown in the pandemic. Beneficiaries of this research include: the BBC; a digital publishing company; a St Andrews-based literary festival with registered charity status; an Exeter-based print workshop; the reading and listening public.

2. Underpinning research

Twenty years ago, the connections between medieval and contemporary literature had been little studied and were hardly recognised, let alone understood; many authorities used to dispute that Old English was properly part of the canon of English Literature at all. Since being appointed at St Andrews in 2001, Jones has extensively researched the influence of medieval literature on modern and contemporary writers. Often drawing on archival research with unpublished documents (including at Harvard’s Houghton Library, Yale’s Beinecke, The New York Public Library’s Berg Collection, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Bodleian Library, and The British Library), Jones has unambiguously identified numerous, previously unnoticed, allusions to and quotations from medieval literature in a number of nineteenth-, twentieth- and twenty-first-century poets. In several cases, Jones has established for the first time specific editions and publications with which modern poets taught themselves to read medieval literature.

Moreover, in several research publications, Jones analyses and conclusively demonstrates, often for the first time, the prosodic and other formal and technical debts that many prominent modern practitioners owe to medieval poetry (including, but not limited to, the monograph and 3 chapters published between 2016 and 2018 [R1-R4] and a previous 2006 monograph [R5]). Jones also exposes and thoroughly discusses the ideological assumptions in arguments for or against considering medieval poetry as part of the ongoing English literary tradition. [R3] As a result of this body of work, the argument that Old English is not part of living English literature is no longer tenable.

Although Jones’s early work concentrated on twentieth-century uses of Old English, more recently it has addressed twenty-first-century Old English, [R2-R4] as well as influences from Middle English and Middle Scots on contemporary poetry. [R3] His work on Seamus Heaney, published in 2006 in Strange Likeness, [R5] discovered new archival evidence of Heaney’s first encounter with the medieval Scottish poets Henryson and Dunbar; this later led to the impact described below at [i1]. As a result of this body of research, Jones has become a recognized authority on what he has termed ‘The New Medieval Poetry’, [R4] his expertise being sought by a number of third-party beneficiaries with a view to staging or interpreting medieval poetry in the modern world: ‘making it new’.

While Jones’s research is primarily on modern uses of medieval poetry, colleague Ian Johnson specializes in later medieval English and Scots literary cultures. His expertise on the Scots poet Henryson, [R6] was combined with Jones’s skills in order to assist Waddell Media and Touchpress in presenting and interpreting Seamus Heaney’s translations of Henryson to a public audience. [i1-2]

3. References to the research

All listed outputs were published following anonymous peer-review process by presses. R1, R2 and R6 are submissions to REF2021 (R1 double-weighted) and R5 was submitted to REF2014.

R1) Chris Jones, Fossil Poetry: Anglo-Saxon and Linguistic Nativism in Nineteenth-century Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). Research monograph. 312 pp. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198824527.001.0001. ISBN-13: 9780198824527.

R2) Chris Jones, ‘Digital Mouvance: Once and Future Medieval Poetry Remediated in the Modern World’, in The Middle Ages in the Modern World, eds, Bildhauer and Jones (London: Proceedings of the British Academy/Oxford University Press, 2017), pp. 168-85. Book chapter and co-edited volume. ISBN: 9780197266144, DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197266144.003.0010.

R3) Chris Jones, From Eald Old to New Old: Translating Old English Poetry in(to) the Twenty-first Century’ in Translating Early Medieval Poetry: Transformation, Reception, Interpretation, eds, Birkett and March (Cambridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2017), pp. 13-28. Book chapter based on plenary lecture as invited keynote at international conference, University of Cork, June 2014. DOI: 10.1017/9781787440654.002

R4) Chris Jones, ‘Medievalism in British poetry’, in The Cambridge Companion to Medievalism, ed. D’Arcens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2016), pp. 14-28. Book Chapter. DOI:

R5) Chris Jones, Strange Likeness: The Use of Old English in Twentieth-century Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2006). Research monograph. 266 pp. Part funded by British Academy Small Research Grant award to carry out archival work (c. £1,300, awarded 2004). Shortlisted for European Society for the Study of English’s best book prize 2008. Available in Oxford Scholarship Online DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278329.001.0001

R6) Ian Johnson, ‘Reading Robert Henryson’s Orpheus and Eurydice: Sentence and Sensibility’, in The Impact of Latin Culture on Medieval and Early Modern Scottish Writing, eds, Johnson and Petrina (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2018), pp. 175-97. Book chapter and co-edited volume. ISBN: 9781580442824. DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv19x4mn

4. Details of the impact

i1) As a result of their research expertise, Jones and Johnson were invited to make several substantive contributions to a BBC adapation of Seamus Heaney’s version of Henryson’s Fables, thereby: co-producing a new cultural artefact (the animated TV documentary films); and increasing cultural participation in, and understanding of, an historically marginalised and minority linguistic area of the literary heritage of the British Isles (medieval Scots).

In 2009 Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney published his translation of seven Aesopian animal fables by the critically important, but linguistically difficult, medieval Scottish poet Robert Henryson. Heaney had first studied this poet as an undergraduate at Queen’s University of Belfast, as Jones’s research has demonstrated. [R2; R5] In 2013 Heaney was working on a series of animated adapations of five of these tales for television. Working with Flickerpix Animations, Waddell Media commissioned the animations, as well as a suite of music by composer Barry Douglas. Voiceover of Heaney’s translation was provided by Billy Connolly. The Executive Producer of Waddell Media approached several academics with relevant research expertise to contribute contextual ‘talking heads’ perspectives on Henryson’s poems and Heaney’s adaptations. That two of these (Jones and Johnson) were based at St Andrews indicates the concentration of research expertise the UoA has in this area, and the wider influence of its research. [R1-R6] Jones’s archival research on Heaney’s undergraduate study of Henryson [R5] fed directly into content choices Waddell Media made for one scene of the adapations. Five Fables, featuring explanatory contributions by Jones and Johnson, was screened on BBC Two Northern Ireland during March and April 2014, reaching approximately 150,000 people (viewers), “ a remarkable number for a relatively highbrow subject”. [S1, p. 2; Executive Producer, Waddell Media] On 15 March 2014, The Irish Times described the films and their expert-driven content as more like short arts documentaries, revealing the creative process and the people involved. Full episodes are available on BBC iPlayer and in the USA on Amazon Prime. [S1-S2]

i2) Jones and Johnson were invited, as a result of their work for Waddell Media, to produce new content for an app version of Heaney’s Five Fables, thereby: co-producing an innovative literary artefact for an entrepreneurial digital publisher; contributing to the economic prosperity of that sector of the creative industries; and further increasing cultural participation in, and understanding of, an historically marginalised and minority linguistic area of the literary heritage of the British Isles (medieval Scots).

As a direct result of the success of the televised version of Heaney’s Henryson’s Fables, [i1] Waddell Media subsequently collaborated with Faber and Touchpress, a company specialising in digital presentation of literary texts, to produce an iPad app version of Five Fables. [S3] Touchpress had become known for innovative, high-quality literary apps with previous releases on The Waste Land and Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and needed to consolidate this reputation with another groundbreaking product, this one successfully bringing linguistically complex medieval Scots poetry to a wider non-specialist audience. The app re-uses the animations, Connolly’s voice-overs and several ‘talking heads’ clips of the BBC films, but additional new material was needed. As the app requires Heaney’s Modern English text to be alternated and compared with Henryson’s medieval Scots, Johnson was commissioned, on account of his expertise in this area, [R6] to record the entirety of the medieval Scots in original pronunciation and keeping pace with Connolly’s delivery so that the two audio files are interchangeable. As a result of his previous research in this area, [R5] Jones was commissioned to write an extensive set of notes interpreting and cross-referencing both Henryson’s text and Heaney’s adapation of it, suitable for a non-specialist audience. Jones wrote approximately 10,000 words of explanatory material included in the app, also writing up this process of ‘digital remediation’ as part of output [R2], creating a cycle of research informing impact informing further research. Waddell Executive Producer noted that Jones “ provided a formidable set of notes that were wonderfully eclectic, immensely illuminating, entertaining and smart.” [S1, p.2] Five Fables was launched on the App Store on 22 May 2014, then retailing for GBP8.99, and by December 2020 had been downloaded over 3,500 times, with those original purchases being updated over 5,000 times: “ an indication that many of the original purchasers are continuing to engage with it.” [S1, p.2] The Five Fables app won the Torc ‘best app’ award at the Celtic Media Festival 2015 (where Jones is credited as writer), [S4, p.2] and been favourably reviewed on several occasions, with a number of reviewers praising Jones’s notes and/or Johnson’s readings. Website Culture Northern Ireland observed: “ Deeper study is possible thanks to the detailed notes written by Dr Chris Jones from the University of St Andrews.” [S5, p.2] Breac: A Digital Journal of Irish Studies described the app as “ well-executed and sleek” and also noted Jones and Johnson’s contributions. The Telegraph (circulation 530,246 in 2014) called the app “ ungimmicky and thoughtfully made”, while the reviewer of the American online magazine Slate, after describing Johnson’s contribution, commented “ never before have I seen or heard an iPad do anything quite so charming”. The Times (circulation 382,198 in 2014) also covered the app on 29 May 2014, quoting both Jones and Johnson.

i3) Following interest in the Heaney/Henryson Five Fables app, Jones made several contributions to BBC radio programmes on the subject of medieval poetry and its place in the modern world: collaborating with broadcasting professionals on the co-production of new cultural artefacts (radio programmes); and increasing awareness and understanding of medieval literary heritage among radio audiences.

As a result of the interest generated by the combined impact of the BBC and iPad Five Fables, [i1-2] Jones’s research has become known to BBC radio producers, who have sought his research contribution to several radio programmes during which medieval poetry has been featured. These include:

Radio 3’s The Verb, 31 January 2014, following the death of Pete Seeger, talking to Ian McMillan about the medieval ubi sunt device in relation to ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone?’. A blog on the topic is also hosted at Research@StAndrews.

Radio 4’s We British: Foundation Stones, 8 October 2015, together with poet Jacob Polley, talking about the Old English poem The Ruin, from the site of its possible inspiration, the ruins of Roman Bath, as part of the BBC’s National Poetry Day celebrations, An Epic in Poetry.

Radio 3’s The Verb, 31 March 2017, reading and talking about the Northumbrian version of ‘Caedmon’s Hymn’, perhaps the oldest poem in English, as part of the Free Thinking Festival at Sage, Gateshead on the theme of ‘Englishness’ .

Radio 4’s ‘The Glories of Northumbria’, episode 2 of Radio 4’s autumn flagship series The Matter of the North, narrated by Melvyn Bragg. First broadcast 30 August 2017, discussing the eighth-century runic Crucifixion Poem on The Ruthwell Cross in Dumfriesshire.

Average audience figures for The Matter of the North’s time-slot reach up to 2,970,000 people (listeners) and “ in the week of Episode two, Radio 4 recorded 143,376 [people] unique visitors to ‘The Matter of the North’ website – a figure which exceeded visits to ‘The Today Programme’ site – and which was only beaten by ‘The Archers’” [S6]. Four minutes of Jones’s interview was subsequently chosen to represent the series on Pick of the Week by Farrah Jarral, who broadcast that Jones’s story of the Cross had ‘really moved me’: 4 September 2016.

The BBC Producer Jones worked with on The Matter of North testified to Jones’s involvement with the episode’s content as well as its delivery: “ In an initial exchange of emails, Dr Jones was able to give me an extremely useful account of Bede’s role [...] in the evolution of the idea of the English as ‘one’ people. [...] Dr Jones’ generous account of the cultural importance, and sheer achievement of the Ruthwell Cross made a great impression on me – and so I invited him to take part in a recorded interview about this artefact (in situ at Ruthwell) for Episode Two of the [Bragg’s] series. He brought telling details, great research and passion to the interview. As a result it was the section of the series which was celebrated on Radio 4’s ‘Pick of the Week’ – representing the best of the ten part series.” [S6]

i4) As result of his work on the Heaney/Henryson App [i2] and appearances on the radio, [i3] Jones was invited to give a series of ‘Old English for Poets’ creative writing workshops at StAnza, Scotland’s International Poetry Festival: aiding audience understanding of an historically and linguistically remote period of literature; and contributing to the economic prosperity of a literary festival which in turn supports the local tourist industry.

StAnza is a local, St Andrews-based poetry festival with an international reach (having attracted participants from more than 60 countries). With attendances in recent years exceeding 18,000 people (general public), [S7, p.1] the festival, now in its 24th year and consistently supported by the School of English, runs in the first week of March, a date chosen for being a seasonal lull in the local tourist economy. The Festival Director, having heard Jones discuss medieval poetry on the radio, [i3] and “ impressed by the outcome of his involvement with Seamus Heaney’s translation of Henryson fables for an app”, [i2] invited Jones to design a series of workshops for aspiring poets to learn skills and techniques unique to Old English poetry. [S7, p.1] Launched in 2018, this series of annual workshops will finish in 2021 (postponed from 2020 due to Covid-19) and have already “ enabled a non-specialist audience to learn about this fascinating field” [of Old English]. Jones waived his performer fees (saving the StAnza organization £750), delivering these workshops gratis, which in turn generated the festival approximately £350 in ticket fees. The Festival Director has acknowledged that Jones’s workshops have, in a funding climate that has become increasingly difficult for medium-scale literary organisations such as this, assisted StAnza, a registered charity, to meet its aim of “ keeping our prices affordable” and ensuring that the poetry festival “ should be accessible to everyone”. Both the 2018 and 2019 workshops were sold out (16 and 18 people (general public) attended), receiving very positive feedback and reviews. [S7, pp.1-4]

i5) As a result of his expertise on digital remediation of Old English riddles, [R2] Jones was invited to collaborate with Exeter-based print workshop Double Elephant in co-producing a new cultural artefact, a digital, interactive version of Old English Riddle 57, allowing increased cultural participation with, and understanding of, a thousand-year-old poem during lockdown in the pandemic.

Jones had previously collaborated with the poet Jacob Polley on tweetable translations of the Old English riddles from The Exeter Book, a medieval manuscript housed in Exeter Cathedral Library. [R2] As a result of this collaboration, in March 2020 Jones was invited by Double Elephant, an Exeter-based print workshop, to take part in a collaborative project that aimed to facilitate wider public interaction with some of the contents of the famous Exeter Book, itself inaccessible during lockdown. This resulted in a multimedia, digital version of Riddle 57, animated using crowd-sourced artwork, and with which users can interact by making choices from three newly commissioned translations (Jones’s using the proposed solution to the riddle of ‘bees’), to create their own composite translation of the Old English out of a total of 2,187 possible variants. [S8] Launched on 20 August 2020, by 7 September the site had achieved an online monthly readership of 2,750 people, had been featured on BBC Spotlight (audience 350,000 people), BBC Radio Devon (circulation 68,000 people), [S9] and was featured by the BBC as one of their ‘Culture in Quarantine’ projects for Galleries, Museums and Archives. [S10]

5. Sources to corroborate the impact

S1) Testimonial letter from the Executive Producer, Waddell Media.

S2) Episodes of Five Fables viewable on BBC iPlayer. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03ygf6x/episodes/player

S3) Touchpress website where Five Fables app can be downloaded. https://www.touchpressmedia.com/

S4) Website for Celtic Media Awards 2015. https://www.celticmediafestival.co.uk/view-entry/2226

S5) Website for Culture Northern Ireland. https://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/literature/seamus-heaneys-five-fables-app-launches

S6) Testimonial letter from Radio Producer for BBC Manchester.

S7) Testimonial letter from the Festival Director for StAnza.

S8) Website for Double Elephant Print Workshop Riddle 57. https://www.doubleelephant.org.uk/riddle-57

S9) PR report by Gillian Taylor on Double Elephant Riddle 57 project (also available as PDF download). https://gilliantaylor.coveragebook.com/b/1429cfcd0ae51c8c

S10) Screenshot of BBC ‘Culture in Quarantine’ website gallery, featuring Riddle 57 on 7 September 2020.

Submitting institution
University of St Andrews
Unit of assessment
27 - English Language and Literature
Summary impact type
Cultural
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?
No

1. Summary of the impact

I and Silence: Women’s Voices in American Song (2019), CD cover .

Embedded image

Embedded image

I and Silence: Women’s Voices in American Song (2019), CD cover.

For over a decade, St Andrews has been a centre of critical, editorial and creative work on novelist Virginia Woolf. Professor Emma Sutton’s research on Woolf and music led to interdisciplinary collaborations that interpret music’s importance to Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group for public audiences. Sutton’s research also directly catalysed and supported creative work: four new musical compositions inspired by Woolf’s writing; a new musical play about Woolf’s life; and a new CD on women’s voices in song. Sutton’s research has: (1) informed a legacy of new musical and dramatic works; (2) inspired interdisciplinary creative practice and enriched cultural life; and (3) interpreted literary heritage for more than 78,000 people (public users) and informed journalism and broadcasts for audiences of over 1,000,000 listeners and readers in the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and Asia.

2. Underpinning research

In 1940, Virginia Woolf famously stated, ‘I always think of my books as music before I write them.’ But, as distinguished Woolf scholar Jane Marcus observed in the 1980s, we have collectively failed to ‘hear’ music’s importance to Woolf’s writing. Although many of Woolf’s contemporary reviewers had noted music’s influence on her prose, research into this subject was hindered by the widespread decline of music education in the later twentieth century and by entrenched perceptions of music as apolitical; the latter obscured recognition of music’s vital role in Woolf's feminism, cosmopolitanism and pacifism. Despite extensive critical attention to the role of the other arts, particularly visual art, in the work and lives of Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group, it was generally assumed they had little interest in music.

Sutton’s monograph Virginia Woolf and Classical Music (2013; pbk 2015) was the first to examine the role of music in Woolf’s life and work in detail [R1]. Underpinned by extensive archival research, the monograph revealed the depth and range of Woolf’s musical knowledge for the first time. It gathered formerly unknown evidence of her musical life, including her music criticism and binding of sheet music, and (by deciphering the abbreviated entries in Leonard Woolf’s financial accounts) established their subscription membership of the National Gramophonic Society and thus her familiarity with far more twentieth-century and avant-garde repertoire than had been recognised. It provided unprecedented analyses of the allusions to music in Woolf’s writing, explored its influence on her politics (feminism, pacifism, philo-Semitism, cosmopolitanism) and proposed music’s vital role in her creative practice. The book (researched 2006-2012) extended the discipline of word-music studies to which Sutton has contributed substantially [R2-R6]. Demonstrating the importance of music to Woolf’s politics and her formal experimentation, Virginia Woolf and Classical Music offered a template for the study of music’s dual significance in modernist writing more widely.

Sutton’s work was enhanced by St Andrews’ community of Woolf scholars, including Professors Susan Sellers and Gill Plain and Dr Christina Alt. Sellers is joint General Editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Virginia Woolf – the first scholarly edition of Woolf’s work – and author of the novel Vanessa and Virginia (2008) about Woolf and her sister. Vanessa and Virginia has been translated into 15 languages, including Japanese and Farsi, and adapted as a stage play. Sutton has been on the editorial team of the Cambridge Edition since 2006 and is volume editor of Woolf’s first novel, The Voyage Out. Sutton’s editorial work engendered new readings of The Voyage Out [R1, R2], which is about a pianist, prompting critical reevaluation of a novel previously dismissed as juvenile work.

Since 2015, public-facing collaborations with pianist Lana Bode (Guildhall) and art historian Dr. Charlotte de Mille (Courtauld Institute) have catalysed an essay exploring connections between Woolf and the Omega Workshops which produced little-known pacifist concerts and art for children during the First World War [R5]; thus, the research informed the impact which in turn informed further research. This essay also established previously unknown connections among Woolf and French women composers, revealing the influence of one – Germaine Tailleferre –on Woolf’s seminal feminist essay A Room of One’s Own. Sutton’s research has, therefore, not only revealed new formal and political aspects of Woolf’s work but also enhanced our understanding of music’s wider importance to early twentieth-century literary and political history.

3. References to the research

All listed outputs were published following anonymous peer-review process by presses. R5 is submitted to REF2021 and R1 and R2 were REF2014 submissions.

R1) Emma Sutton, Virginia Woolf and Classical Music: Politics, Aesthetics, Form (Edinburgh University Press, 2013; pbk 2015). Research monograph, 171 pp. ISBN: 9780748637874. Available in Edinburgh Scholarship Online, DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637874.001.0001.

R2) Emma Sutton, ‘Fiction as Musical Critique: Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out and the Case of Wagner’, in Phyllis Weliver and Katharine Ellis, eds, Words and Notes in the Long Nineteenth Century (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2013), 145-63. Book chapter. ISBN: 9781843838111. Volume shortlisted for The Ruth A. Solie Award, The American Musicological Society, in 2014 for ‘a collection of musicological essays of exceptional merit’.

R3) Emma Sutton, ‘Flying Dutchmen, Wandering Jews: Romantic Opera, Anti-Semitism, and Jewish Mourning in Mrs. Dalloway’, in Adriana Varga, ed., Virginia Woolf & Music (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2014), 160-79. Book chapter. ISBN: 9780253012555.

R4) Emma Sutton, ‘Decadence and Music’, in Jane Desmarais and David Weir, eds, Decadence and Literature (Cambridge UP, 2019), 152-68. Book chapter. Available at Cambridge Core. ISBN: 978110426244, DOI: 10.1017/9781108550826.010.

R5) Emma Sutton, ‘Gender Wars in Music, or Bloomsbury and French Composers: Woolf, Tailleferre, Boulanger’, in Ariane Mildenberg and Patricia Novillo-Corvalán, eds, Virginia Woolf, Europe, and Peace: Transnational Circulations (Clemson UP, 2020), 33-48. Book chapter. ISBN: 9781949979350. Essay based on plenary lecture at the 28th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, University of Kent, June 2018.

R6) Emma Sutton, ‘“Restless Mystical Ardours”: Decadence and Music’, in Alex Murray, ed., Decadence: A Literary History (Cambridge UP, 2020), 218-33. Book chapter. Available at Cambridge Core. ISBN: 9781108426299 , DOI: 10.1017/9781108640527.013.

4. Details of the impact

Sutton’s research has catalysed and supported four new musical works, a new musical play and a CD. These works fostered artists’ professional development, leading directly to further performances and commissions for the musicians and composers involved. Through 8 research-led concerts, 11 public talks, an exhibition, and broadcasts for UK, Australian and Russian TV and radio that were presented by Sutton, or in which she was interviewed or her work cited, Sutton’s research has enriched cultural life and interpreted literary heritage for users in the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and Asia. These events showcasing music’s role in Woolf’s life and afterlives were directed by Sutton and pianist Lana Bode who together established the ongoing Virginia Woolf & Music project in 2015 after Bode read Sutton’s monograph [R1] and proposed a collaboration; AHRC funding enabled the commissions, events and premieres of new music inspired by Woolf. Over 78,000 people have attended the project’s events or used its resources; journalism and broadcasts informed by Sutton’s research have reached international audiences of at least 1,000,000. Beneficiaries, some of whom were also at times collaborators, include: composers, musicians and dramatists; the reading, listening and exhibition-going public; and school children.

1) Sutton’s research informs legacy of new musical and dramatic works

In total, four new compositions inspired by Woolf’s writing have been commissioned and/or premiered as a direct result of Sutton’s research. These are: a song ( A London Street in Winter) and a string quartet ( Memory is the Seamstress) by eminent British composer Jeremy Thurlow; the song cycle Woolf Letters by British composer Richard Barnard; and a song cycle The Lonely Mind by Dutch composer Jan-Willem van Herpen (all premiered 2016). Thurlow’s song has been reprised once in the UK (in 2018), his quartet three times in the UK (between 2017 and 2020) and van Herpen’s in the Netherlands (in 2018). These works, in turn, catalysed further compositions, including a choral setting by Thurlow of text from Woolf’s The Waves (premiered in 2018, Tokyo). In 2016, the Alvor Ensemble commissioned Barnard to develop ideas and musical material from his Woolf song cycle for a new instrumental work, Our Great Grief and Joy (4 UK performances between 2016 and 2020). Then, in 2020, they commissioned another new instrumental work to “ partnerOur Great Grief and Joy; Barnard described this as “ a really crucial medium-sized commission” in the context of the Covid-19 lockdown [S1, p.8]. AHRC funding also enabled the project to premiere String Quartet No. 3, the last work by distinguished American composer Elliott Schwartz (d. 2016).

Sutton’s research also inspired a new one-woman play about Woolf’s life: Virginia Woolf, Killing the Angel (ongoing UK-wide theatre and festival tour from 2020; 5 performances to date, including at the 2020 Bloomsbury Festival, others postponed due to Covid-19). The play combines Woolf’s words with music by contemporary female composers whose work is now rarely performed. The writer/performer Lucy Stevens writes of Sutton’s book, “ its mere existence persuaded Elizabeth Marcus [the musical director] that Virginia Woolf (not being a singer) was a potential subject that we could portray with words and music” [S2]. Moreover, some of Stevens’s decisions about the selection of music and texts for the play were the “ direct result” of Sutton’s research [R1]. For instance, Sutton’s discussion of the historic expectation that men and women should play different repertoire – a bias Woolf had challenged in her first novel through allusions to Beethoven’s last piano sonata (Opus 111, in C minor) – led Stevens to include an extract from this sonata early in the play. Similarly, Stevens’s interweaving of lines from the concert scene in Woolf’s novel The Waves with musical phrases from Offenbach’s ‘Barcarolle’ drew directly on Sutton’s analysis of the novel [S2]. The convenor of the Opera All Party Parliamentary Group described the play as “a stunning piece of research […] unearthing some little-known details of VW's life”.

2) Sutton's research inspires interdisciplinary creative practice and enriches cultural life

Between 2016 and 2020, Sutton and Bode directed an exhibition, 8 research-led concerts and 11 talks, many live-streamed and available long-term free on the project website. Highlights include: a concert and exhibition for StAnza poetry festival (in St Andrews, 2016) placed by the box office, visible to the approximately 16,500 people (public attendees) who visited the festival [S3]; performances at some of London’s most prestigious concert venues including St-Martin-in-the-Fields (twice in 2018) and St James’s Piccadilly (in 2018); and a concert and talk at the Paul Mellon Centre (in 2019) for the Bedford Square Festival, the first time a musical performance had been included in the Festival. Sutton’s research [R5] also enriched cultural life for children in Scotland. The connections among pacifism, music for children, Woolf and other Bloomsbury members informed a children’s concert, marionette workshops and curriculum-based worksheets. These resources, developed and delivered in collaboration with teachers and available free on the project website, were featured as good practice in interdisciplinary teaching at a Highland Teachers’ Inset Day (in 2017) and the University of Malta (in 2018). As of 31 December 2020, over 1,600 people (predominantly, Scottish school children; also, Scottish adults) have participated in project workshops on this topic and others based on Sutton’s research [S4].

One example illustrates the project’s influence on artists’ creative and professional development. Bode and mezzo-soprano Marta Fontanals-Simmons initially collaborated performing Dominick Argento’s 1974 song cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolf for the project in 2016; as Fontanals-Simmons attests, this led them to develop a sustained collaboration focused on women’s representation in song. They: reached the semi-final of the 2017 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition; were awarded a year-long performance residency at Snape Maltings, Aldeburgh; followed by another year-long residency at the Britten-Pears Foundation, funded by the British Council. In 2019, they released their debut album, I and Silence: Women’s Voices in American Song (Delphian records, Gramophone’s ‘Label of the Year’, 2014). The CD, which includes their performance of Argento’s Woolf cycle, has been widely acclaimed: a ‘remarkable exploration’ ( Sunday Times) displaying ‘searing musical intelligence’ ( Classical Source); a ‘hugely ambitious debut solo album’ ( Gramophone); 5 stars BBC Music; Presto Editor’s Choice (2019). CD sales (retail price: GBP14.99) and streams exceed 10,000 since 30 August 2019 [S5]. At Delphian’s invitation, Bode is creating a follow-up CD of newly-commissioned music by women composers, a welcome development given it is estimated only 13% of new classical music is written by women.

3) Sutton’s work interprets literary heritage in the UK and internationally

Virginia Woolf is often seen as a ‘difficult’ novelist yet considerable interest has been generated internationally by the sustained engagement of the public with Sutton’s work. Virginia Woolf and Classical Music [R1] was the subject of a 2014 feature programme ‘Woolf and Wagner’ for ABC’s Radio National (Australia) (weekly audience of more than 631,000 people (listeners)); feature available on demand on ABC’s and the producer’s website (additional 3,700 people (listeners) on the latter through 31 December 2020). Sutton was interviewed at length for the hour-long feature, timed to reflect on the first-ever production of Wagner’s Ring cycle by Opera Australia (the principal national opera company) in November and December 2013 on the bicentenary of Wagner’s birth and the accompanying Melbourne Ring Festival (an accessible “ predominantly free and low-cost” festival of more than 30 performances, films, events and exhibitions described by Melbourne’s Minister for Tourism as “ a major international event for the city […] expected to generate more than $12 million [AUD12,000,000] in economic benefits for the state”). The programme discussed Sutton’s research on music’s role in Woolf’s creative practice, the references to music in her novels, and the Woolfs’ responses to British nationalist and Nazi appropriations of music during the First and Second World Wars. Noting the importance of Sutton’s archival work on Leonard Woolf’s diaries, which had enabled Sutton to reconstruct the “ fascinating list” of Woolf’s attendance at performances of music and her listening to recorded and broadcast music, the producer observed we now have “ the soundtrack to the coming-into-being of some of the twentieth century’s great novels” [S6]. As part of the 2014 year of Anglo-Russian relations, Sutton was invited by the British Council to give public lectures presenting her wider research on word-music studies: the first at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Art (broadcast on Moscow 24 TV and YouTube (additional 3,000 views on the latter to date)) and the second, focusing specifically on Woolf, at the Moscow Conservatoire. Sutton’s research has also contributed to journalism and broadcasting by others, demonstrating growing recognition of the importance of music to Woolf’s life and work. Classical-music.com (website of BBC Music, worldwide the best-selling music magazine, circulation over 37,500) published a feature ‘The Musical Life of Virginia Woolf’ (in 2019) informed by Sutton’s research, and the presenter of the Sony Gold Award-winning BBC Radio 3 music programme Late Junction consulted Sutton’s monograph for her BBC Radio 4 feature ‘Pursuit of Beauty: Virginia Woolf: Impossible Music’ with actor Tamsin Greig and new music by composer Nina Perry (broadcast twice in 2018 and available on demand; weekly audience for Radio 4 factual programmes, including ‘factual arts’, was 8,200,000 people (adults) in 2018-19) [S7].

One subject that has attracted particular interest is Sutton’s research on music and mental illness. In her monograph, Sutton had explored connections among music, mental illness and post-war trauma in Woolf’s writing, proposing for example that the double narrative structure of Mrs Dalloway may be modelled on the double form of musical fugue (fugue was also a contemporary synonym for shell shock) [R1]. This research informed sold-out concerts and talks with Bode and Fontanals-Simmons in 2016 and 2018. Their CD catalysed discussion of music and mental health: a two-page feature in the trade magazine for professional musicians, Classical Music (2019), discussed the representations of “ grief”’ and “ depression” in the song settings of texts by Woolf, Emily Dickinson and Sara Teasdale, the author commending the “ wisdom” of the programming and describing the CD as “ a disc [that] stays with you long after the music itself finishes” [S8]. On World Mental Health day (10 October 2019), Fontanals-Simmons was an invited speaker at Classical Music magazine’s launch of the ‘Harmony in Mind’ campaign that advocates mental health provision for professional musicians. Bode and Fontanals-Simmons opened the 2020 Devon Song Festival with this repertoire and reprised it, in conjunction with public lectures on ‘mental health, well-being and music’, at the 2020 Oxford Lieder Festival.

5. Sources to corroborate the impact

S1) Scans of openings of musical scores of three new works ( A London Street in Winter; Memory is the Seamstress; and I see a Ring) based on Woolf’s work by Jeremy Thurlow; e-mail from Richard Barnard, 16 December 2020.

S2) E-mail from writer/performer of Virginia Woolf, Killing the Angel, 21 January 2021.

S3) E-mail from Director, StAnza, Scotland’s International Poetry Festival, 27 April 2016.

S4) E-mail from Primary Science Development Officer, Highland Schools, regarding Highland Teachers’ Inset Day, 18 September 2017; Conference poster and e-mail from EU Project Officer, University of Malta, 14 May 2018; data on workshop attendance.

S5) Scans and screenshots of reviews of CD I and Silence in the Sunday Times, Classical Source, Gramophone, BBC Music and Presto; e-mail from Label Manager, Delphian Records, 20 January 2021.

S6) Screenshots of ‘Woolf and Wagner’, ABC website, 22 February 2014. Link: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/intothemusic/woolf\-and\-wagner/5234150

S7) Screenshot of Ofcom’s Annual Report on the BBC, 2018/19. Annex 2: BBC Performance Report, 24 October 2019 (p. 57).

S8) Scan of feature about CD I and Silence, Classical Music, September 2019 (pp. 78-9).

Submitting institution
University of St Andrews
Unit of assessment
27 - English Language and Literature
Summary impact type
Cultural
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?
No

1. Summary of the impact

Women have been under-represented in the theatre, in terms of the numbers of female playwrights whose work is staged, the number of main roles for women and the gender bias of the stories told. Professor Zinnie Harris has created 6 plays which put women at the centre of dramatic stories, creating substantial roles for women actors and making a considerable contribution to changes in the gender imbalance ingrained in most theatre. Harris’s work has:

1. increased the representation of plays by and about women in British and international theatre and catalysed changes in theatre practice. These 6 plays have been translated into French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish and seen by more than 71,000 people in 10 countries at principal theatres – at times, by audiences of record size for the theatre concerned. Their critical and box office success influenced subsequent programming of drama by women and increased roles for women in professional theatre. In 2017, for example, five plays by Harris formed the core of the Edinburgh International Festival drama programme – a featuring of a diverse range of work by a female playwright almost certainly unprecedented in the Festival’s history. In 2019, Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre’s decision to programme an entire season of plays by women was directly inspired by Harris’s work.

2. stimulated public debate about women’s roles in theatre in Britain, Europe, South Africa and Turkey, where Harris’s Meet Me at Dawn catalysed debate about women’s representation in drama and inspired ten new plays about gender and LGBT identity.

3. left a creative legacy of 6 award-winning plays that influence and inspire contemporary female dramatists. These works have: won the Berwin Lee award for best play in the USA/UK; won the Critics’ Award for Best New Play, Scotland, once and been shortlisted twice; been shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn award; and won a Herald Angel award.

2. Underpinning research

Playwriting for stage, screen and radio has been integral to the School’s creative work, research and teaching for a decade. The creative work of Harris and colleague Oliver Emanuel (winner of multiple awards for radio and theatre drama) is complemented by Dr Sam Haddow’s research on theatre and political violence. Since 2014, their teaching and creative work has benefitted from the University’s lease of the Byre Theatre (directed by former managers/directors of the NTS and Scottish Opera).

Harris’s writing is driven by the question: how do we challenge the representation of women in theatre? British theatre has a wonderful canon of plays but, historically, dramatists have tended to put men at the centre of their stories, leading to a lopsided presentation of the world. Not only are women under-represented on stage, but also, where women are at the centre of modern plays, the story is often restricted to being about something that only concerns women (‘women’s issues’). The tradition of ‘everyman’ roles – for instance King Lear and Willy Loman – has few female equivalents. Harris responded by creating plays in which the central woman is the everyman character rather than being defined by her gender or romantic relationships.

The second catalyst for Harris’s writing concerns the representation of women in ancient and canonical drama. In modern contexts, and with contemporary understandings of grief, ambition, frustration, depression and marriage, the psychology of these characters is often unconvincing; they are simplistically perceived as ‘bad’ or ‘emotional’ women rather than understood as complex and individual. Harris re-visited these stories and framed them around the woman’s experience, so that the characters’ choices and behaviour arise as much from their situations as from a received representation of the female disposition. The recreation of canonical female roles is a notable focus of Harris’s work, including: the 2016 trilogy This Restless House re-creating Aeschylus’s Clytemnestra and Electra from the Oresteia [R1] and her 2019 adaptation The Duchess [of Malfi] from Webster’s source [R2].

Six of Harris’s plays with women at the centre have been published by Faber during the assessment period, leaving a legacy of leading roles for women. The first was How to Hold Your Breath [R3; R5], a response to Brecht’s The Good Person of Szechwan. Researched and written during 2012-14, this was a new morality play that reflected on contemporary refugee crises and placed two women as everyman figures, in contrast to the prostitute and her male alter-ego in Brecht’s play. Crucially, the women carry a universal story and are not seen in relation to a romantic attachment to a man, but as representative of humankind.

The research for and writing of the trilogy This Restless House [R1], which reworks Aeschylus’s Oresteia, took place between 2013 and 2015. Harris placed Clytemnestra at the centre of part one of her trilogy (equivalent to Aeschylus’s Agamemnon), and then her daughter Electra at the centre of parts 2 and 3 (rather than the son – Orestes – as in the originals). Challenging received ideas of Clytemnestra (and later Electra) as a woman already capable of murder, Harris showed Clytemnestra affected and changed by the events of the play – not least, grief at the ritual sacrifice of her daughter.

The fourth play with women at the centre, Meet Me at Dawn [R4; R5] (researched and written between 2015-2017), drew inspiration from the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice but was re-framed as a love story between two women, exploring grief after the sudden death of one of the lovers. In this play, Harris created an original narrative with two women at the centre but where the characters’ sexuality was incidental rather than the main theme of the writing – an almost unprecedented move in modern theatre.

In 2018 and 2019, Harris wrote and directed a new adaptation of John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi for the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. The Duchess [of Malfi] [R2] explores female sexuality, disobedience in the face of controlling men and male rage; Harris’s version uses the themes from the original but also engages equivalent contemporary contexts, including the #MeToo movement.

3. References to the research

**

The calibre of Harris’s work is indicated by the fact that all these plays are published by Faber; R1 and R5 are both double-weighted REF2021 submissions.

[R1] Zinnie Harris, This Restless House: Three New Plays by Zinnie Harris Based on Aeschylus’ ‘Oresteia’ (London: Faber, 2016). ISBN: 9780571332625. Winner of Best New Play, Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland, 2016; shortlisted, Susan Smith Blackburn Award, 2016.

[R2] Zinnie Harris, The Duchess [of Malfi] (London: Faber, 2019). ISBN: 9780571355389. Shortlisted, Best New Play, Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland, 2020.

[R3] Zinnie Harris, How to Hold Your Breath (London: Faber, 2014). ISBN: 9780571324927. Winner, Berwin Lee award for playwriting, 2015.

[R4] Zinnie Harris, Meet Me at Dawn (London: Faber, 2017). ISBN: 9780571341245.

Shortlisted, Best New Play, Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland, 2018.

[R5] Zinnie Harris, Plays One: Further than the Furthest Thing, Midwinter, How to Hold Your Breath, Meet me at Dawn (London: Faber, 2019). ISBN: 9780571356720.

4. Details of the impact

Zinnie Harris has created 6 plays (decribed in section 2) which put women at the centre of dramatic stories, creating substantial roles for women actors and making a considerable contribution to changes in the gender imbalance ingrained in most theatre. Since 2015, these 6 plays have been seen by more than 71,000 people in 10 countries (the UK, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey and the USA) and have been translated into 11 languages. They have changed programming practice at two major theatres and festivals, provoked international debate about women’s representation in theatre, and leave a legacy of work that has influenced British, Turkish, Kurdish and Iranian playwriting about women.

1. Harris’s work increased the representation of plays by and about women in British and international theatre and catalysed changes to theatre practice.

(a) Increasing the representation of plays by women: All of Harris’s plays received high-profile premieres at national or leading theatres. These plays about women were viewed by audiences of, at times, exceptional size for the theatres concerned; their critical and box office success prompted further productions, increasing the representation of plays by and about women in the UK and Continental Europe. For example, How to Hold Your Breath premiered on the main stage of the Royal Court Theatre, London, for 8 weeks (48 performances) from February – April 2015. This production was attended by 19,126 people to a capacity of 98% (the second highest-grossing play in the theatre’s history) [S1, p.1]. In 2015, it won the Berwin Lee playwriting award for best play in the UK/USA. It was then produced in prestigious theatres in France, Turkey, Sweden and Greece: in 2016, the six-month production at the Diana Theatre, Athens, for example, had over 22,000 people (attendees) while the production at Istanbul’s DOT Theatre was attended by nearly 4,000 people (audience members), a record for the venue, leading to nominations in 8 of 11 categories in Turkey’s most prestigious theatre awards [S1, p. 5]. In January 2017, it opened in the main theatre in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2018, it was produced and broadcast on French national radio, read at the Comédie-Française, Paris (the world’s oldest theatre company and France’s principal state theatre), and at the Avignon Festival. In 2019, it played at the National Theatre of Sweden (the Dramaten Theatre, Stockholm).

At the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), Harris’s work formed the core of the drama programme (and won a Herald Angel award) when the directors programmed her work and co-produced with two leading Scottish theatres: her trilogy This Restless House (winner, Best New Play, Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland, originally produced by The Citizens Theatre, Glasgow); her version of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros (a co-production between the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, and EIF); and the premiere of Meet me at Dawn (a co-production between Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, and EIF). Meet me at Dawn played to a capacity of 88% at the Traverse where it was seen by over 5,000 people; subsequent productions of Meet Me at Dawn include a month at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg (South Africa’s principal and most prestigious theatre) in 2018 and four months at DOT Theatre, Istanbul (December 2017 – April 2018). The Turkish production was then re-created at the Arcola Theatre, London, in 2019.

(b) Harris’s work has catalysed changes to programming practice at two leading Scottish theatres and festivals: the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, the ‘ west of Scotland’s major producing theatre’, and the Edinburgh International Festival, which in 2017 had an attendance of more than 461,000 people from 83 nations, more than 2,200,000 users of online resources and ticket sales of more than GPB4,390,000. EIF’s placement of a female playwright’s work at the centre of their 2017 drama programme by staging a diverse range of Harris’s plays, two in co-productions with other prestigious Scottish theatres, was almost certainly unprecedented in the Festival’s history. Of the four world premieres in this 70th anniversary EIF (part of the world’s largest arts festival), two were by Harris [S2, p. 10, 15]. Moreover, in 2019 the Citizens Theatre programmed new work by women playwrights, including Harris, in their season ‘Citizens Women’ “ putting women characters – and therefore women actors – centre stage”. The theatre’s Artistic Director directly attributed this decision to Harris’s work which “ has led specifically to my programming a whole season of work at the Citizens that is written by women and which puts female characters at the heart of the stories that are told [...] having made this programming decision, it is beholden on me and other artistic directors to ensure that these stories remain central to the work we present” [S3].

(c) Harris’s work has fostered wider increases in women’s representation in professional theatre in South Africa and the UK, in a context where only a fifth of English theatres have female directors controlling only 13% of the Arts Council budget [S4, p. 2]. Harris’s plays provided opportunities for women actors in their thirties and forties to take centre stage roles at a time when work typically starts to thin as Kirsty Stuart (nominated for Best Actress at CATS awards for her lead role in The Duchess) attests: “ As a wom[a]n actor in my late thirties, it has been a frustrating few years […but Harris’s work is] creating roles for women and showing that stories with [older] women at the centre are just as thrilling, heart-breaking, terrifying, inspiring and watchable” [S5, p. 1]. Several actors went on to win awards for these roles, including Pauline Knowles ( Best Actress at CATS awards, 2016, for her Clytemnestra in This Restless House). Furthermore, the Market Theatre (Johannesburg) production of Meet Me at Dawn was “ supported by an all-women design and production team”, the review for South African news website IOL implicitly attributing this to the subject of Harris’s work: “ The play carries universal themes of grief and loss. But it is also centred around the relationship between two women”. The novelty of this was also discussed by award-winning actor Pamela Nomvete on SABC News (South African state morning TV) in March 2018, Nomvete stating that ‘ the all-female team’ was one of the factors that ‘attracted’ her to the role [S5, p. 6].

2. Harris’s plays catalyse national and international public debate about women’s roles in theatre.

Through her plays, Harris has been a major voice in raising debate on this topic. Public discussion of women’s roles in theatre has burgeoned since 2015. Harris’s role in the debate is clearly evident: Harris is often invited to comment on it; her influence on the debate is cited; and the topic is documented in audiences’ responses to her plays. In a programme note for the 2016 all-women Shakespeare Trilogy at the Donmar Theatre, London, for example, The Guardian’s Chief Culture Writer discussed the gender divide in theatre, noting: the “ main character [of How to Hold Your Breath ], played by Maxine Peake, reminded me how rare it is to see a woman carrying the weight of a universal story, undefined by romantic attachment” [S6, p. 2]. Similarly, in 2017 tweets about Meet me at Dawn by audience member Natalie Ibu (now Artistic Director of Northern Stage Theatre, Newcastle) stated it was “ the first timeas a queer black womanI get to see myself’ in a play where ‘the drama’ ‘is completely unrelated to my identity. Feels so extraordinary a comment to make that as I type it, I’m desperately thinking back over all the plays I’ve seen in my 33.75 years. Nope. Today is the first.” [S6, p. 3].

Her influence on debate was particularly pronounced in Turkish audiences’ and playwrights’ responses to the events accompanying Meet me at Dawn’s Istanbul premiere (2017-18). In the context of a ban on LGBT drama and film in Turkey, the production became the centre of debate about how women are represented onstage and in the media. Three public panels – at which Harris spoke and which were attended by psychiatrists, feminist/LGBT activists, students and the public – sold out within 48 hours and were attended by more than 200 people and watched by more than 600 online; the premiere and panels were described by the Director of Sabanci University’s Gender and Women’s Studies Centre as a “ unique and valuable space” inspiring discussion of sexuality, gender and trauma [S7, p. 2]. Harris’s workshops with and two-year mentoring of 13 people (young Turkish, Kurdish and Iranian playwrights) led to 10 of the 13 writing their debut plays on “ gender-informed subject matters” [S1, pp. 3-4]; the Turkish newspaper Milliyet described them as “ a new wave of playwrights who will make a difference” [S1, p. 4]. Harris’s collaboration with one playwright, who became her Turkish translator, led to his appointment as Affiliate Artist at UNESCO RILA (Refugee Integration Through Arts). He writes: “ Harris and her works have produced a new generation of playwrights; created employment for more than 30 professionals (more than half of them are women) [...]; brought national and international awards and nominations; and started a huge public discussion around gender politics of theatre’. [Harris’s work] ‘has created an unparalleled ripple effect on our lives, community and on our craft’ [and] ‘has become a barometer of sexual politics of representation’.” [S1, pp. 6-7].

3. Harris’s work leaves a creative legacy for playwrights, directors, actors and audiences.

Harris’s plays have: won the Berwin Lee award for best play in the USA/UK; won the Critics’ Award for Best New Play, Scotland, once and been short-listed twice; been shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn award; and won a Herald Angel award. In February 2019, distinguished theatre critic Joyce McMillan described Harris as “ the leading Scottish playwright and director”, commending her “ international reach” and noting she “ had three different plays opening across Europe in a single weekend”. Harris’s works are now established in the British theatrical canon, available to diverse current and future readers and audiences, as is apparent in: at least 17 productions of these 6 plays in the UK and internationally to 31 December 2020; their numerous awards and critical success; and their influence on school and University teaching in the UK and Turkey. An acting edition of This Restless House is published for amateur, student and school performances; 644 people (students) from 30 schools attended The Duchess in Glasgow in 2019 and school workshops sold out [S8, p. 1]; and Harris’s Turkish translator was invited to re-gender the drama curriculum at Istanbul Bilgi University. He included three plays by Harris as well as work by other women and queer dramatists, for which he was commended as Best Lecturer by the University’s Human Rights MA programme director [S1, p. 6]. Recognition of the importance of Harris’s creative work led to her elevation to Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2018.

Several female playwrights attest that Harris’s creation and re-creation of roles for women has profoundly influenced the types of stories they tell. The award-winning Scottish playwright Stef Smith writes, “ Watching Meet Me at Dawn has inspired me to continue on my own journey to ensure I am both writing and supporting work that furthers different, complex, multifaceted representations of woman and other identities / communities who are often underserved by the canon of British playwrighting” [S9, p.1]. Palestinian-Irish playwright Hannah Khalil writes: “ the fact that Zinnie’s plays are being programmed on big stages is vitally important. It makes other female writers know the effort is worthwhile and the fight winnable” [S9, p. 2]. And award-winning Scottish playwright Frances Poet writes: “ As a playwright, Zinnie’s influence reigns large [...] in Zinnie we have a playwright building worlds around extraordinary female protagonists, offering […] unrivalled roles that reframe what is possible for women on the stage” [S9, p. 3].

5. Sources to corroborate the impact

[S1] Screenshot from BBC Arts website, 16 March 2015; e-mail from Marketing Officer, Royal Court Theatre, 4 March 2019; letter from UNESCO RILA Affiliate Artist, 22 January 2020.

[S2] Screenshots from Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) Annual Review 2017; screenshot from Wikipedia entry on EIF; e-mail from Artists Coordinator of EIF, 12 January 2021.

[S3] E-mail from Artistic Director of Citizens Theatre, 22 July 2019.

[S4] Screenshot of Guardian website, 24 April 2018.

[S5] E-mail from actor Kirsty Stewart, 6 August 2019; screenshot of IOL website, 27 March 2018; screenshot of SABC interview with actor Pamela Nomvete, 12 March 2018.

[S6] Article in 2016 theatre programme by Guardian’s Chief Culture Writer; screenshot of audience comments on Twitter about Meet me at Dawn, 27 August 2017.

[S7] Statement from Director, Gender and Women’s Studies Centre of Excellence, Sabanci University, 21 June 2018.

[S8] E-mail from Marketing Officer, Citizens Theatre, 24 September 2019.

[S9] E-mail from Stef Smith, 7 June 2018; e-mail from Hannah Khalil, 17 June 2019; e-mail from Frances Poet, 5 July 2019.

Showing impact case studies 1 to 3 of 3

Filter by higher education institution

UK regions
Select one or more of the following higher education institutions and then click Apply selected filters when you have finished.
No higher education institutions found.
Institutions

Filter by unit of assessment

Main panels
Select one or more of the following units of assessment and then click Apply selected filters when you have finished.
No unit of assessments found.
Units of assessment

Filter by continued case study

Select one or more of the following states and then click Apply selected filters when you have finished.

Filter by summary impact type

Select one or more of the following summary impact types and then click Apply selected filters when you have finished.

Filter by impact UK location

UK Countries
Select one or more of the following UK locations and then click Apply selected filters when you have finished.
No UK locations found.
Impact UK locations

Filter by impact global location

Continents
Select one or more of the following global locations and then click Apply selected filters when you have finished.
No global locations found.
Impact global locations

Filter by underpinning research subject

Subject areas
Select one or more of the following underpinning research subjects and then click Apply selected filters when you have finished.
No subjects found.
Underpinning research subjects