a celebration to spotlight female artists

It features works conceived and produced by women and on female-centred themes, spanning from 10th-century Japan to 18th-century Paris to the present day. A rich body of work from across the globe, it encompasses the whole spectrum of women’s creativity.

I arrive early to the theatre, and the exhibition space is rather quiet, other than a couple of early guests babbling quietly over bubbles of champagne. The exhibition is being held in the café of The Playground Theatre, a bright yet cosy space with a bar and seating area made up of pink tiles across all the walls and plush velvet sofas. 

It feels like I stepped into a drag queen’s dressing room a decade ago; the retro bulbous lamps hanging from the ceiling and soft jazz music are comfortingly nostalgic. Surprisingly, the theatre director, Peter Tate, who is also Sorkin’s husband, later reveals that the café is, in fact, run by drag queens.

There are 13 paintings arranged across the room, all a melange of pastel soft hues, which perfectly complement the pink wonderland of the cafe. Immediately, I recognise elements of pre-Raphaelite and Renaissance painting, as the female figures are depicted in voluptuous nude forms with long red hair. Botticelli’s Venus, Rossetti’s Lady Lilith, and Millais’ Ophelia spring to mind.

I manage to catch Birnbaum, who is grinning from ear to ear before she is swarmed by guests. She takes me to the centrepiece called Divine Feminine, which features Lilith, an important figure in Jewish iconography, deemed to be the first female icon to symbolise autonomy and independence from her male counterpart.

Indeed, in the Jewish religion, Lilith was Adam’s first wife before he created Eve out of himself. After fleeing the domination of Adam, she was viewed as a demon for many years, especially as a threatening symbol to women during childbirth. However, since then, she has been reclaimed and re-defined by feminists, including Birnbaum herself, who describes her as embodying “positive feminine energy”.

The rest of the paintings follow a similar theme, with biblical, mythological, or historical references. A couple of these feature goddesses of a Baltic, pagan, female-centred religion called Romuva. “What a great religion!” Birnbaum exclaimed. However, Christian monks extinguished it in the 14th century. Birnbaum had worked in Eastern Europe for some time and became fascinated by it.

Then, there are scenes in Polish and Lithuanian jazz cafes in the pre-war era. One of these is called Café Tango, which features dancing couples in a vibrant nightclub. The painting is a combination of watercolour and sketch; the mix of hazy watercolour, which creates a dream-like, ethereal quality, juxtaposed with the hyper-stylised, almost cartoonish figures, leaves the viewer in a transient state between reality and dream.

I look at it perplexed, as the female figure looks familiar. Before I have time to ask, Birnbaum points to her, saying, “That’s Naomi”.  Dancer and actress Naomi Sorkin, who is curating the exhibition, is a dear friend of Birnbaum’s and has increasingly become her muse. Birnbaum explains that her love for dance greatly informs her paintings, and Sorkin’s “strong and striking” facial features and movements are a gift for any artist.

However, despite the exhibition and its setting being an explosion of all things feminine and beautiful, there’s a tense and urgent vibe that one can’t ignore. Birnbaum explains that the year-long creation of this exhibition made her realise how much the female, as a person and symbol, is under attack, particularly this year. 

This year, we’ve seen such an unprecedented attack on women across the world, from East to West. Sorkin and Birnbaum, among other artists performing at the festival, are American and express their horror at how the recent elections, which saw the subsequent transfer of power to the Trump administration, are attacking women and LGBTQ+ rights through its policies.

“These are very dark times, so we need to cherish expression and communication,” said Birnbaum during her inaugural speech. Now more than ever, celebrating and uplifting female artists internationally remains crucial; this is where the idea for the festival came about. Sorkin and the theatre manager Helena Hippolito decided to bring to life a multidisciplinary festival to be repeated annually around this time of year.

This opening year, there’s an exceptional lineup of over 30 female artists from around the world. Works include a film by Oscar-winning Brigitte Berman, pieces by composer and pianist Alla Sirenko, the only Ukrainian composer to have her work performed at the Royal Opera House, a play presented by ​​Emmy and multi-award-winning director and playwright Emily Mann, and a documentary on the trailblazing ballerina Lynn Seymour, just to name a few.

In 2023, just 27% of the films made and released were by women. “The fact that women have been sidelined, despite the fact that they have been creative, cannot be ignored,” said Sorkin when I interviewed her after the opening of the festival. “But, no matter how hard you try to suppress women, they must never back down from expressing themselves,” she continues.

At the end of the day, what remains throughout history are buildings, paintings, music. Art. So, to repress them is fascistic and dystopian. “The arts are the most important reminder of our humanity and we must never forsake them and the need to create them,” Sorkin concluded.

The festival will be from March 2nd to March 23rd, and you can get more information and buy tickets at The Playground Theatre here.

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