This Greenville Journal article by Paul Hyde was originally published on January 28th, 2025. Photo: Will Crooks
What happens when an outspoken 16th-century feminist meets an enormously egotistical playwright by the name of William Shakespeare?
One result seems certain: lots of hilarity.
In The Warehouse Theatre’s “Jane Anger,” the time is 1606 and Shakespeare is quarantined in a house with his assistant Francis while the plague rages outside and writer’s block tyrannizes inside.
Jane Anger, a writer with a desire to change history, appears on the scene, seeking to strike a bargain with Shakespeare in order to have her protofeminist pamphlet published. Later, Shakespeare’s much-neglected wife Anne Hathaway joins the group.
What ensues is a battle of wits and farcical hijinks.
“It’s more Monty Python than ‘Masterpiece Theatre,’” said director Anne Kelly Tromsness. “It’s a broad farce, very physical in nature.
“It sends up Shakespeare in the most hilarious ways,” Tromsness continued. “There are a lot of references for the Shakespeare fans, but you don’t have to be a Shakespeare fan to enjoy the play.”
The 90-minute comedy was written by playwright and actress Talene Monahon during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she set the play during a plague in England. It was while quarantined in 1606 that the real-life Shakespeare may have written “King Lear” and “Macbeth.”
Monahon’s fast-moving play — the dialogue is contemporary, not Shakespearean — is performed straight though without an intermission.
“It’ll be a short happy evening in the theater with lots to talk about when you leave,” Tromsness said. “In the middle of winter, we need a lot of laughs, and this one should deliver on that.”
‘Uproarious comedy’
“There aren’t enough unabashedly uproarious contemporary comedies and ‘Jane Anger’ packs more laughs per page than most,” said Mike Sablone, producing artistic director of The Warehouse Theatre. “It’s a bonus to have such a joyful, silly show set in 1606 also have some relevance to us in 2025.”
The Jane Anger of the play’s title was a real person, or at least the pseudonym of a real person who in 1589 published the pamphlet “Jane Anger Her Protection For Women,” in which the author spoke out for women’s rights, defending women against misogynistic stereotypes.
The cast features familiar Warehouse actors Carter Allen (“Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt 2B”), Maegan McNerney Azar (“Sweat,” “Angles in America”), Tinasha LaRayé (“Twelfth Night,” “Assassins”) and Liam MacDougall (“Kill Corp,” “Witch”).
Theater-goers should note: The play includes adult themes and language.
