From history and politics to fantasy and farce, the first flourish of women's theatre in Canada questioned the discourses that formed and informed ideas of gender, sex, and sexuality. This book revives ten theatrical comedies that staged the promise of social change.

Kym Bird is associate professor in the Department of Humanities at York University.

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“Kym Bird’s Blowing up the Skirt of History is a dynamic and compelling anthology [that] collects some of the earliest English plays from different regions in Canada. With verve and humour, Bird uses public theory and feminism to analyze the plays’ constrained performance of nationalism and racial privilege. Bird’s energetic writing style will certainly appeal to undergraduate students and help make early Canadian theatre more accessible. Blowing up the Skirt of History is an important work for anyone interested in early Canadian drama and feminist literature.” Canadian Literature

"Most of these plays and playwrights are virtually unknown and have lapsed into the same historical lacuna that engenders the myth that there were no women's plays before 1960. Recovering these playwrights and their work is an important feminist project: Blowing up the Skirt of History goes a long way toward refuting this historical misconception and revising our understanding of what historically constitutes 'Canadian drama.'" Dorothy Hadfield, University of Waterloo