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The Herbal Bed
The Herbal Bed
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Author: Peter Whelan Publisher: Dramatists Play Service (cover may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 84 Pub. Date: 1999 Edition: Acting ISBN-10: 0822216752 ISBN-13: 9780822216759 Cast Size: 3 female, 5 male
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About
the Play:
The Herbal Bed has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues and scene-study showcases.
The Herbal Bed is a full-length drama by Peter Whelan.
Based on a true event in the life of Susanna Hall, the daughter of
William Shakespeare. Susanna, married to Dr. John Hall, has been
accused of adultery with a married man. The case progresses to court where
the participants must decide to lie or tell the truth about what
happened in the Halls' herb garden. Shakespeare's presence looms
ethereally over this emotional tale of forbidden love and private
intrigue.
The Herbal Bed is based on actual events that occurred in
Stratford-upon-Avon in the summer of 1613, when William Shakespeare's
elder daughter Susanna Hall was publicly accused of having a sexual
liaison with Rafe Smith, a married neighbour and family friend.
Susanna sues her accuser, young Jack Lane, for slander in the court
of Worcester Cathedral. Susanna's husband, the respected physician of
Stratford, John Hall, is desperate for her to clear her name in order
to save his practice, and he gives her his complete support. But how
can he avoid the fact that one summer's night, while he was away from
Stratford, Rafe Smith was seen secretly leaving their herbal garden?
Faced with political divisions within the church, the hearing in the
bishop's court becomes a risky gamble as three people's private lives
are held up to the glare of intense public scrutiny in this emotional
thriller whose outcome is anything but certain. A powerful expose of
the contradiction between human desire and social convention, The Herbal Bed is q
moving and uplifting play that provides a beautiful evocation of life in
Shakespearian England.
The Herbal Bed premiered in 1996 in a Royal Shakespeare
Company (RSC) production at The Other Place Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon,
England. It subsequently had a successful run in 1997 at the Duchess
Theatre in London's West End and played on Broadway in 1998 at the
Eugene O'Neill Theater in New York City. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been
performed
in regional and
college
theatre productions.
Cast: 3 female, 5 male
What people say:
"In his probing new play, The
Herbal Bed … Peter Whelan muses
about a sidelong event in the life of Shakespeare's family and
creates a finely textured tapestry of love and lies in the early
seventeenth-century Stratford…Mr. Whelan is a speculative
playwright with a keen sense of history." — New York
Times
"In The Herbal Bed,
Peter Whelan takes the few basic facts known
about Susanna Hall, elder daughter of William Shakespeare, and
conjures up a whole world and a knotty moral dilemma…Whelan creates
a play about relative and absolute truth, about morality, compromise
and love. The result is absorbing, intelligent and funny." —
Financial Times (London)
"Peter Whelan's
The Herbal Bed … [is] a marvelous piece,
tender, wise and generous of spirit … Whelan has created a
remarkably persuasive and touching portrait of a family in crisis.
Every character comes to life and, although he doesn't appear,
Shakespeare is a powerful presence … Whelan's exploration of what
Susanna calls 'love's alchemy' is deeply moving. He writes
beautifully…." — The Daily Telegraph
(London)
"It is a first rate drama with
interesting moral issues of truth and expediency." — New
York Post
About the Playwright:
Peter Whelan is an award-winning British playwright who has
been producing modern classic plays since 1970s. He began his career
in advertising and short film scripting before starting to write for
the stage. A self-confessed late developer, Whelan didn't write
"anything cogent" until he was almost 40. His works
includes seven plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company, including The
Herbal Bed.
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