ABSTRACT
The most striking and significant innovation of the Restoration theatre was the introduction of women to the professional stage. First and foremost, this meant that plays about love and marriage, that is, probably, most plays, had a new realism about their performance, a new sort of honesty which most writers rejoiced in. If most of the plays were still written by men, women spoke from the stage as women now, and if the misogyny of the male playwrights was still too common, the actress could use her tone of voice, her gesture, her facial expression to expose masculinist attitudes. The female voice was heard on the stage regularly for the first time.
