THE Feminist Fletcher Festival will turn the spotlight on English Renaissance playwright John Fletcher in a series of staged play readings at the Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York in April and May.

The project is being co-produced by ex-pat American director Ben Prusiner and two PhD students in the women's studies department at the University of York, Lauren Cowling and Aurèlia Ubeda Puigdomenech. Their mission is to unravel the connections between Fletcher's time and our own, with a special emphasis on feminism.

"John Fletcher co-wrote several plays with Shakespeare and wrote a sequel to The Taming Of The Shrew, The Tamer Tamed," says Re:verse Theatre artistic director Ben Prusiner. "After each performance, we're going to do a short panel discussion with feminist and theatre scholars to look at how feminist – or not – these plays are from a modern perspective.

"In addition, we've partnered with the York Shakespeare Project to present a panel discussion after the Saturday matinee of their May production of Shakespeare and Fletcher's The Two Noble Kinsmen."

Maggie Smales directs the festival-opening reading of The Maid’s Tragedy on April 30 at 7pm. In Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's play, patriarchal values, such as family honour, are strong on the island of Rhodes, where violence is a tool to control women and preserve gendered oppression. How can women fight back? Tickets cost £5, students £3, on the door.

The 2pm matinee of YSP's full-scale production of The Two Noble Kinsmen in the De Grey Rooms Ballroom on May 5 will be followed by a panel discussion at 4.30pm; admission is included with a ticket for any 'Kinsmen' performance in the May 2 to 5 run, with tickets on sale at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk and on 01904 623568.

Prusiner oversees The Martial Maid, or Love's Cure, a Fletcher, Francis Beaumont and Philip Massinger play about Clara, who has won honour as a warrior, and Lucio, who has thrived as a woman. "Now their secrets are out, what will they do? Is gender inherent to biological sex, or a performative act of identity-making?" Prusiner asks. Find out the answers at the Black Swan on May 7 at 7pm; tickets £5, students £3, on the door.

On May 21, Lena Tondello is the director for Fletcher's solo work The Tamer Tamed, wherein he urges: "Why then, let’s all wear breeches!" The women in this raucous sequel to The Taming Of The Shrew confront the prescribed power dynamics of marriage through sex strikes and cunning. Same start time; same ticket prices.

Emma Summers is at the helm for Fletcher and Massinger's The Sea Voyage, where, shipwrecked on a remote island, an all-female society turns to misandry (contempt for men). The play ponders whether an isolated matriarchy is a solution to women’s troubles in a patriarchy and explores what happens when pirates arrive on their shores in a reading on May 28, same start time, same ticket prices.

Each event in this spring's "critical exploration of a Renaissance playwright" also will feature a public display of original printed play scripts from the 1600s. More information can be found at re-versetheatre.com and facebook.com/reversetheatre