The Lady Scribblers

London 1689. A fight breaks out at the funeral of Aphra Behn, the first woman to earn her living as a playwright. Mary Pix, who writes comedies in her kitchen while waiting for her bread to rise, wants to get her plays on the stage, but Christopher Rich, who runs the only royally sanctioned theatre in London, sneers at her and refuses to allow any more plays by women. Three leading actors voice their support...
London 1689. A fight breaks out at the funeral of Aphra Behn, the first woman to earn her living as a playwright. Mary Pix, who writes comedies in her kitchen while waiting for her bread to rise, wants to get her plays on the stage, but Christopher Rich, who runs the only royally sanctioned theatre in London, sneers at her and refuses to allow any more plays by women. Three leading actors voice their support for Mary, and attack Rich for poor management and underpaying them. Mary and her women playwright friends join forces with the actors to lead a rebellion against Rich’s monopoly by founding a new theatre. Scribblers is written in the style of a Restoration Comedy, flirts with rhyming couplets, and does a country dance with history. Over twenty years of researching and directing the work of women playwrights of the Restoration, I have borrowed their style to tell their story.
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The Lady Scribblers

Recommended by

  • Kate Danley:
    11 Jul. 2019
    What a delight of a play! Covering a period of British theatre history rarely discussed, it is chock full of fascinating facts and colorful characters. The wit and wordplay is as joy-filled as Moliere. It makes for a fantastic Restoration theatre option outside of the standards audiences may have seen a million times already. Lovely roles and opportunities for women abound. It honors the everything that makes Restoration theatre so appealing while presenting an original story. It would be a GREAT addition to a classical theatre's season or university's repertoire.
  • Patricia Milton:
    25 May. 2019
    This play is so much fun! It centers women playwrights of the Restoration era, and incorporates all the physical and verbal comedy we expect from a Restoration play. Thoroughly researched, with terrific dialogue and historical references. Plus, it's super-theatrical, with wonderful roles for women. It's a real find not only for for theatres, but for colleges and universities.
  • Carol Lashof:
    22 Oct. 2018
    Goldhaber has pulled off the extraordinary feat of writing a new play which reads like an authentic Restoration comedy. Replete with highly theatrical shenanigans, comic sexual innuendo, and spirited plot twists, Lady Scribblers sheds feminist light on 17th century theater history but does not feel like a history lesson. It would be lots of fun to perform and to watch.

Development History

  • Reading
    ,
    The Women's Theatre Festival, Raleigh, NC
    ,
    2018
  • Workshop
    ,
    New Perspectives Theatre Company
    ,
    2018
  • Reading
    ,
    Symmetry Theatre Company
    ,
    2015
  • Workshop
    ,
    Butterfield 8 Theatre Company
    ,
    2013

Production History