Displaying items by tag: Annie Hogan

The Artistic Home’s U.S. premiere of this 2024 revival by Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, “The Sugar Wife” is intellectually engaging but rather unemotional given its subject lines: marital infidelity, slavery, sexploitation, hypocrisy. Perhaps that goes with its Quaker storyline, a denomination known for an ascetic simplicity and rigorous moral discernment before engaging in action.

Set in 1850, the 2006 script by Elizabeth Kuti revolves around the internal moral struggles of Hannah Tewkley (Annie Hogan), who has married the wealthy Samuel Tewkley (Todd Wojcik), a merchant whose fortune is in sugar and tea. The sugar trade, in Hannah’s view, is contaminated by its reliance on slave labor for production. So in their marriage pact, Hannah has required that Samuel source sugar cane only from “ethical” sources not involving slavery.

Hannah is a morally upstanding Quaker, who now has the wherewithal to fund charities, visit the poor and offer assistance for their betterment, tutoring in reading, for example. But the poor starving Irish (the famine was at its height) really just want food and money. This sentiment is embodied by Martha Ryan (Kristin Collins is the liveliest performer on stage).

From left: Ashayla Calvin, Kristin Collins and Annie Hogan

Ill and wrapped in a blanket on her cot, Ryan rises to challenge Hannah for something more useful than moral improvement, like cash. This scene presents the conflict inherent in dispensing one’s own vision of benefit to parties seeking something more essential to their lives. Ryan gives Collins the insolence and quick Irish wit of which we wish there were more on stage.

The plot, what there is of it, thickens with the arrival of Alfred Darby (John LaFlamboy), a British philanthropist, accompanying Sarah Worth (Ashayla Calvin), a former slave who is on a speaking tour relating the evils of the slave trade. But we learn along the way Alfred has been disinherited from his family’s wealth, and now relies on Sarah’s speaking fees. Alfred takes public credit for buying Sarah’s freedom, but she has entered a different kind of enslavement as the breadwinner for the duo, who reside with the Tewkley’s during this speaking stint.

In a notably precise dive into Quaker matters, Alfred challenges Hannah about the small fortune she spent remodeling the mansion she inhabits with Samuel. She has stripped out all the moulding and embellishments, including a gilded mirror, in the interest in creating a more spare interior, in keeping with her Quaker values. But such an action can be frowned upon in Quaker circles, looking more like virtue signalling since that money might have been used for a social good.

Samuel meanwhile confesses to Alfred, man to man, that he has been untrue, and that, occasionally, he must buy sugar cane from slaveholders to keep his mills operating. He keeps these matters quiet from Hannah. Eventually this and more dirty laundry surfaces among the players, each of them, including Sarah, with something untoward to confess. Despite skillful direction and scenic design by Kevin Hagan, and truly great costumes by Rachel Lambert, it's a slow grind through what is essentially a melodrama, to get to the bottom of it all. At which point we see the light, but with very little heat.

“The Sugar Wife” is recommended, if only because The Artistic Home deserves support for its ordinarily better script selection. “The Sugar Wife” runs through May 3, 2026 at Chicago’s Theater Wit.

This review is proudly shared with our friends at www.TheatreInChicago.com. 

The witch is back, Jen Silverman’s ‘Witch’ that is. Since first being commissioned by Writer’s Theatre back in 2018, Jen Silverman’s take on Jacobean theatre has become a somewhat popular selection for regional theaters. The Artistic Home Ensemble brings this play back to Chicago in a revival directed by Devon Carson going on now at The Den.

What continues to be striking about this play is its exploration of hopelessness. ‘Witch’ is about an ostracized woman living in the 1600s who the townspeople have decided (without basis) is a witch. Her miserably lonely life is spiced up when the devil himself comes to town and begins meddling in the lives of the villagers. Some are more easily tempted than others, but the supposed witch, Elizabeth Sawyer (Kristin Collins), is harder for the devil to convince. Besides, what can anyone offer someone who has lost hope for a better future?

The devil played with fiendish fun by Julian Hester finds himself enamored with skeptical Elizabeth Sawyer who is also drawn to him. They spend long nights discussing their world views and within their conversations, Jen Silverman peppers in some humorous, but unsettling monologs about the human condition. Kristin Collins as Elizabeth has a great way of shifting between comedic relief and heart-rending vulnerability. Her character all the while pleading, “can things ever really get better?”

As the devil and Elizabeth get to know each other, the devil also inserts himself into the lives of the richest family in town. His gentle suggestion sets in motion a bitter rivalry that plays out with classic dramatic irony.

Silverman’s script is wise in its sharp tongue and makes a statement on the general apathy many feel every day. In her version, the devil himself has hopes and dreams, but outcasts like Elizabeth have long lost hope that her neighbors can ever evolve past their pettiness.

Like Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’, this play holds a Puritanical mirror to our own time, but unlike John Proctor, Elizabeth doesn’t have altruistic intentions. She may be the protagonist, but she’s not your standard heroine. Silverman’s point in comparing our two eras is to show that people haven’t gotten any wiser. People are still inherently selfish and highly subject to influence.

‘Witch’ is well-acted and well-styled. For a play with such a dark core, there’s a lot of comedy here and this cast really plays that up. Kristin Collins brings a Molly Shannon quality to the lonely Elizabeth that makes her plight far less depressing than it sounds. Hogan’s chemistry with Julian Hester is fun to watch.

More than anything, this play remains as timeless in 2018 as in 2023, because while some political and societal things have gotten better, some have inevitably gotten worse. There will always be cynics and optimists duking it out and perhaps the easiest place to be is somewhere in the middle.

Through December 3^rd at The Artistic Home Ensemble at The Den. 1331 N Milwaukee. 773-697-3830.