<
https://theconversation.com/in-1614-a-mother-of-eight-put-on-a-play-about-her-cheating-neighbour-the-scandalous-story-changes-what-we-know-about-women-in-theatre-228997>
"On September 4, in 1614, a woman named Alice Mustian put on a play in the
English city of Salisbury. Erecting a stage in her own backyard, Mustian
assembled a group of local children, including her ten-year-old son Phillip, to
perform a play based on local gossip: that Mary Roberts, the wife of a joiner,
had had an affair with a baker named Robert Humphries.
Nothing except eyewitness accounts of Mustian’s play has survived to the modern
day. This is the case for most plays written and performed in early modern
England. The vast majority have been lost, and are known only by sparse and
fragmentary evidence, if at all.
But as our research shows, the story of Mustian’s play, gleaned through witness
testimony during her defamation trial, sheds fascinating light on the
theatrical culture of England at the time, and the role of women within it."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
