”I never saw such a woman. She would certainly be a fearsome thing to behold.”
- Elizabeth Bennet upon the idea of an ’accomplished woman’. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813)
Accomplished women, accomplishing things.
Fearsomely.
Fearsome Thing was founded by Elizabeth Neale, Sarah Johansson and Karin Stranned in 2018. The name is from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. When Mr. Darcy explains what an ’accomplished woman’ is, Elizabeth Bennet replies sarcastically that “she would be a fearsome thing to behold". We believe that women who hold their ground and push boundaries are Fearsome Things.
We want to push the boundaries both for society’s norms and for what theatre is by creating internationally relevant theatre that challenges the status quo. We often work with immersive theatre in unconventional spaces. Our goal is to create work that connects the past and our current reality, so that we can pass down knowledge to others of our history and how it relates to the present and our future.
One priority for Fearsome Thing’s vision is to help women and non-binary people to become more active in positions in the industry that are usually seen as masculine. We do this by arranging workshops in, for example, stage combat and technical theatre.
We want to celebrate all women’s roles in society by highlighting what women have accomplished throughout history and to reflect on how their achievements have created opportunities for us today, and how we can develop that even further. Our focus is on equality and to give a full picture of women's' strength and complexity.