Beverley Knight, who stars as Emmeline Pankhurst in the hip hop musical Sylvia, has called for a statue of Sylvia Pankhurst in Manchester, questioning why the city has only honoured Emmeline with a statue in recent years.
Statue campaign
Speaking ahead of the show's run at The Lowry from October 19 to October 24, Knight said it was "insanity" that Emmeline Pankhurst only received a statue in Manchester in 2018, becoming only the second statue to a woman in the city after Queen Victoria. She questioned why Sylvia does not also have a statue.
"I mean where the hell is Sylvia? Manchester is a working class city, the majority of the people in her time would have been working class people who were pushing for the vote - and that was Sylvia. 100 per cent there should be a statue to Sylvia," she said.
Musical's portrayal
The musical portrays the complex relationship between Emmeline and her daughters, with Sylvia fighting for universal suffrage for working women, the impoverished, and the silenced, which clashed with the plans of Emmeline and Christabel for the Women's Social and Political Union. Sylvia was ejected from the WSPU in 1914.
Knight said it was special to bring the show to Manchester, where the Pankhursts began their movement at 62 Nelson Street in Chorlton-on-Medlock. "It's just so incredible that a movement that shook the world started in Manchester, so for me I'm so excited to show this story to Mancunians," she said.
Audience impact
Sylvia's granddaughter, Dr Helen Pankhurst, has been involved with the musical from the start, with Knight praising her as "our primary source of info." Knight said the show is attracting diverse audiences, including older women whose grandmothers were suffragettes and young women "fired up."
Knight, a self-confessed "history geek," said she knew little about the Pankhurst dynamic before the show, including Sylvia, Annie Kenney, and Flora Drummond. "The medium of art as an educator cannot be underestimated," she said. Tickets for the show at The Lowry are available from £21.
