CHARM

by Kathleen Cahill

It is set in the 1840’s, about people who actually existed: a remarkable woman, Margaret Fuller, and her relationships with many of the great literary figures of her time—Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne—men whose works we know well. But the past is an invention, and therefore the characters glide between worlds: they live in and out of history, in and out of the past.

The play...

It is set in the 1840’s, about people who actually existed: a remarkable woman, Margaret Fuller, and her relationships with many of the great literary figures of her time—Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne—men whose works we know well. But the past is an invention, and therefore the characters glide between worlds: they live in and out of history, in and out of the past.

The play is about writers, people who made worlds out of words. The language of the play is rich. It is also full of anachronisms. Margaret Fuller was a woman ahead of her time, and so she sometimes uses the language of our time, and dreams our dreams.

On another level, CHARM is about several famous men, and one forgotten woman. It is a play about who history remembers and who it forgets, and why.

It is a surreal comedy of manners, a play about what men and women want from each other, the difficulties of communication, and how we are inhibited or freed by the manners and conventions of our time.

It’s also about American Transcendentalism, the belief in the freedom of the human spirit to transcend the confines of history and time. I believe great writing can free the soul. The writings of the Transcendentalists continue to inspire me, and I believe we need them more than ever now, as our towers of greed crumble around us.

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CHARM

Recommended by

  • Cheryl Bear: CHARM

    A rich and fascinating story featuring the great literary figures we love in fine form. Well done.

    A rich and fascinating story featuring the great literary figures we love in fine form. Well done.

  • Emma Goldman-Sherman: CHARM

    What a marvelous creation! I love this play! It is gloriously well-written, hilarious, with such style and grace and smarts and theatricality! Love love love this magnificent story of lust and curiosity and desire and sex and love and the Transcendentalists and the 19th Century and so this very minute and forever - a play for the ages. It's also a brilliantly delightful feminist interpretation of the past with strong roles for women, huzzah!

    What a marvelous creation! I love this play! It is gloriously well-written, hilarious, with such style and grace and smarts and theatricality! Love love love this magnificent story of lust and curiosity and desire and sex and love and the Transcendentalists and the 19th Century and so this very minute and forever - a play for the ages. It's also a brilliantly delightful feminist interpretation of the past with strong roles for women, huzzah!

  • National New Play Network: CHARM

    Charm by Kathleen Cahill received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. The partnering NNPN Member Theaters were Salt Lake Acting Company (UT), Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas, TX), and Orlando Shakespeare Theater (FL).

    Charm by Kathleen Cahill received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. The partnering NNPN Member Theaters were Salt Lake Acting Company (UT), Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas, TX), and Orlando Shakespeare Theater (FL).

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Development History

  • Type Workshop, Organization Playfest, Orlando Shakespeare, Year 2011
  • Type Workshop, Organization Icicle Creek Theatre, Year 2010
  • Type Workshop, Organization Lark Theatre, Year 2010

Production History

  • Type Professional, Organization New Hampshire Theatre Company, Year 2019
  • Type Professional, Organization Taffety Punk Theatre, Washington D.C., Year 2014
  • Type Professional, Organization Kitchen Dog Theatre, Dallas, Year 2013
  • Type University, Organization Weber State, Ogden Utah, Year 2013
  • Type Professional, Organization Orlando Shakespeare, Year 2012
  • Type Professional, Organization Salt Lake Acting Company (premiere) , Year 2011