Nine Till Six

The theme of the play, Nine Till Six, is that of women’s professional lives and their role in the economy, mapped against their experience of womanhood and a lack of social agency. It is a good example of her ability to capitalise on the cultural zeitgeist, of a particular historical moment.

Aimee Stuart consistently wrote plays focused on the female experience, in a changing social and economic climate.

The Cambridge History of British Theatre says of Nine Till Six - it carefully integrates women from all classes, while questioning the relationships between class, gender, work, power and the economy in a woman’s world of work.

From 1926 to 1940, Stuart had twelve plays produced in the West End of London. This one centres on the dressmaker/fashion trade in a department store in Regent Street, W1. It has an all-female ensemble of actors and ran for 259 performances in the West End. In 1932 it was made into a film, directed by Basil Dean, the first talking picture from Ealing Studios, after it had been converted to sound.