Lay The Bent to the Bonny Broom

by Zoe Senese-Grossberg

The Gideons, a wealthy Jewish family in Regency England, attempt to pass the days through an endless season of balls and social pleasantries. Caroline dreams of impossible marriages to gentiles, Edith yearns to be a prominent scientist, and Simon simply wants to go back home to London. When Edith builds an automaton who ends up being the perfect woman; she seems to be a solution to all their problems. However...

The Gideons, a wealthy Jewish family in Regency England, attempt to pass the days through an endless season of balls and social pleasantries. Caroline dreams of impossible marriages to gentiles, Edith yearns to be a prominent scientist, and Simon simply wants to go back home to London. When Edith builds an automaton who ends up being the perfect woman; she seems to be a solution to all their problems. However, the plan backfires when Edith and the automaton fall in love, and then the automaton begins to murder all of their suitors. Part horror-comedy, part Austenian romance, interspersed with haunting folk ballads and questions of queerness and Jewish identity, it asks about the type of stories we can fit ourselves and our desires into.

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Lay The Bent to the Bonny Broom

Recommended by

  • Sarah Jae Leiber: Lay The Bent to the Bonny Broom by Zoe Senese-Grossberg
    “

    Passionate, layered, funny, and dark, Senese-Grossberg has created something unique and enduring that lives up to its promise of being "the A-side of a Jane Austen novel and the B-side of a Mary Shelley novel." The scary, sexy, devastating Jewish Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein of your dreams. What does it mean to act out of line when you already have an identity-based target on your back? Who wins and who loses when oppressed people submit to an uncaring societal hierarchy to gain acceptance?

    Passionate, layered, funny, and dark, Senese-Grossberg has created something unique and enduring that lives up to its promise of being "the A-side of a Jane Austen novel and the B-side of a Mary Shelley novel." The scary, sexy, devastating Jewish Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein of your dreams. What does it mean to act out of line when you already have an identity-based target on your back? Who wins and who loses when oppressed people submit to an uncaring societal hierarchy to gain acceptance?

    ”

Character Information

Actors of any gender, race, or ethnicity can play any character. All of the suitors plus the Constable should be played by one skilled character actor.
  • Simon Rosenstein
    Edith and Caroline's distant cousin and father’s heir, a failed student, awkward, ineffectual, sexually repressed, and listless. He was raised in comparable poverty in London's East End. Must sing and play guitar decently.
    mid 20s
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      20s
  • Daniel Waters
    A dedicated butler with a quick and cutting wit, hardworking and paternal to the girls, he has served the family so long they have replaced his own
    late 50s-early 60s
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      50s,
      60s,
      70s+
  • Rowena (The Automaton)
    A clockwork girl, unearthly in beauty, painted on features, new to the world, she looks younger than Edith but older than Caroline, somewhere between a child, an animal, and a robot (think E.T.). Must be a somewhat accomplished singer.
    mid-late 20s
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      20s
  • The Man
    A gifted character actor who plays all other characters, pale reflections of the stock characters of this era, best to find the bit for each one of them and use that to differentiate. Includes: an eccentric zoologist, a pompous young member of Parliament, a slightly lecherous Reverend, a foppish Viscount, a handsome young suitor, and a proto-Sherlock Holmes type constable. Must sing well.
    Any Age
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      20s,
      30s,
      40s,
      50s
  • Edith Gideon
    A wealthy merchant’s daughter, a rational and scientific minded inventor, desperate for control. Presents in a proto-butch or masc style, as much as her time period allows.
    late 20s-early 30s
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      20s,
      30s
  • Caroline Gideon
    Edith’s little sister, fanciful and flirtatious, suppressing a rage she does not understand, she is an accomplished young lady, must play guitar quite well and sing at least passably well
    23
    Can be played by:
    • Actor Age
      Teens,
      20s

Development History

  • Workshop, The Firebird Project, 2024

Awards

  • National Playwright’s Conference
    Eugene O’Neill Center
    Semi-Finalist
    2023