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The Herbal Bed

The Herbal Bed
Your Price: $18.95 CDN
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

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 BedPeter 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.