When the Recession broke in 2008, writer Christian McEwen noticed that the media focused almost exclusively on male stories – either the scandalous behavior of the men on Wall Street or the sad consequences for men in manufacturing and construction jobs.

To correct this imbalance, she started interviewing women about the role of money in their lives and she has now created a full-length play called Legal Tender: Women & The Secret Life of Money.  The play will be performed at the Quaker Meeting House, 43 Center Street, Northampton, MA on Saturday, March 8th at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and again on Saturday, March 15 at the same times.

As McEwen explains it,  “Even now, well into the twenty-first century, women still do two-thirds of the world’s work, earn one tenth of the world’s income, and own less than one per cent of the world’s property .  . .  Our struggles, our anxieties, our achievements, are often quite different from those of our fathers, brothers, husbands, sons and grandsons, let alone our friends and professional colleagues. My aim in writing Legal Tender has at its heart an attempt to name those differences, to understand and publicize those stories.”

Legal Tender is based on personal interviews with over fifty women ranging in age from 6 to 94, interspersed with commentary drawn from the media and from McEwen’s research. The effect is of a documentary collage, along the lines of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues, and the play can be performed without sets or costumes.

Much of what McEwen heard in the interviews was being told for the first time, and she wants the play to serve as a catalyst that raises awareness about women and money, triggers public conversations on the subject, and most of all, inspires women to speak more freely about their feelings and experiences around money.

If you are interested in doing a reading or performance of this play in your community or on the radio, please contact Christian McEwen through her website at:  www.ChristianMcEwen.com.