Chamber Music is a 1962 one-act play by absurdist playwright Arthur Kopit.
[1] The story is set in 1938 and concerns eight famous women from different historical periods who all are interned in the same insane asylum.
The women are — or at least believe they are — author Gertrude Stein, martyr Joan of Arc, activist Susan B. Anthony, politician Queen Isabella I of Spain, Constanze Mozart (wife of the famed composer), pilot Amelia Earhart, silent-film actress Pearl White, and explorer Osa Johnson.
They have come together to represent the women of the asylum in planning for an attack they believe is soon to come from the men's ward.
There are beliefs that the play is meant to symbolize the sexist and unjust treatment of women throughout history.