In Development
The Lamentable Comedie of JANE ANGER
that Cunning Woman, and also of Willy Shakespeare and his Peasant Companion, Francis, Yes and Also of Anne Hathaway (also a Woman) Who Tried Very Hard
Written by Talene Monahon
It’s 1606 and William Shakespeare is stuck in quarantine with his unpaid peasant apprentice, Francis. It would be a GREAT time to write King Lear… if he weren’t plagued with writer’s block. In through the window climbs JANE ANGER, the Cunning Woman, with a large sack and a mind to change history forever.
DELICIOUSLY low-fi aesthetic. complimented with lush period costumes. underscored with fabulous Anacronistic beatz. Feminism. Whimpsy And willy JOKES.
“The play is about some real people and also some people I’ve made up. There’s alot of true history in there and also a flagrant disregard for historical fact.”
Playwright, Talene Monahon
“Mile-a-minute gags”
New York Times
“A blast! Demented revenge comedy riffs with bawdy irreverance.”
The New Yorker
“With its joyfully anachronistic tone, nod-and-wink meta-humor and raunchy antics, ‘Jane Anger’ makes for brazen counterprogramming.”
The Washington Post
“Mad funny.”
Time Out
Bec is an award-winning actress across film and television, and one of Australia’s beloved theatre clowns. She founded Club House Productions as a naughty play space for skilled artists to colour outside the lines.
Currently, she is preparing to tour 44 Sex Acts in One Week to festivals both here and abroad, as well as developing Dance Dance Insurrection, the next instalment in David Finnigan's apocalyptic trilogy.
Talene Monahon is a Brooklyn-based playwright and actor. Her plays include Jane Anger (New Ohio; 2022 Off-Broadway Alliance Best New Play Nominee, New Yorker Critic’s Pick, Time Out Critic’s Pick, New York Magazine Approval Matrix), How to Load a Musket (Less than Rent; #3 on TheaterMania’s list of “The 10 Best Theater Productions of 2020”), Frankie & Will (MCC), proud revengeful ambitious (Play Per View) and All in Good Fun (Peterborough Players). Her work has been developed by NYSAF, Bedlam Theater, Red Bull Theater, Cape Cod Theater Project, and Northern Stage and her writing has been published by Stage Rights, The Cincinnati Review, and McSweeneys. As an actor, credits include productions at Roundabout Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, the Atlantic, MCC, New Georges, Encores!, Red Bull, La Jolla Playhouse, Gingold Theater Group, and Partial Comfort, as well as selected film and television. She has a B.A. from Dartmouth College, where she was a Senior Fellow.
Lee Lewis is one of Australia’s leading stage directors and as Artistic Director has led Queensland Theatre, the state company based in Brisbane, Australia and Griffin Theatre Company, Australia’s new writing company.
While at Queensland Theatre, despite pandemic restrictions, the company returned to production in late 2020 and managed to produce eight shows in 2021 and seven shows in 2022, while also building their significant statewide Youth and Education programme.
For Griffin Theatre Lee directed the world premiere of Prima Facie, The Almighty Sometimes, Kill Climate Deniers, The Homosexuals or Faggots, Rice, Gloria, The Bleeding Tree (three Helpmann Awards), 8 Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography, Masquerade (co-directed with Sam Strong) , Emerald City, A Rabbit for Kim Jong-il, The Serpent’s Table, Silent Disco, The Bull The Moon and the Coronet of Stars, The Call, A Hoax, The Nightwatchman, and; for Griffin and Bell Shakespeare: The Literati; for Bell Shakespeare: The School for Wives, Twelfth Night, for Belvoir: That Face, This Heaven, 2000 Feet Away, Half and Half, A Number, 7 Blowjobs and Ladybird; for Melbourne Theatre Company: Gloria, Hayfever, David Williamson's Rupert, which toured to Washington DC as part of the World Stages International Arts Festival and to Sydney’s Theatre Royal in 2014; for Sydney Theatre Company: Mary Stuart, Honour, Love Lies Bleeding and ZEBRA!; for ATYP: Battlegrounds and Citizenship; for Darwin Festival Highway of Lost Hearts; for NIDA: After Dinner, Big Love, Shopping and Fucking, and The Winter’s Tale; and for WAAPA: As You Like It. She also directed the revival of Max Lambert’s and Katharine Thompson’s musical Darlinghurst Nights for The Hayes.
Lee was the first person to receive a Master of Fine Arts from NIDA in Directing. Her thesis was published by Currency Press as a Platform Paper under the title Cross-Racial Casting: Changing the Face of Australian Theatre. She was the 2007 Richard Wherrett Fellow at Sydney Theatre Company. She started at Griffin as the Associate Director in 2008, becoming its Artistic Director in 2012. Many of her productions have been nominated for awards, but most notably, her production of Angus Cerini’s The Bleeding Tree won three Helpmann Awards including Best Play, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Director.
Her production of Prima Facie starring Sheridan Harbridge was the beginning of the remarkable journey of that play around the world, to the West End, to Broadway and now into film and novel. Known as a champion of playwrights, she has specialized for many years in the first productions of new works, but her body of work reveals a deep love of classics and working with young people.
Trent Suidgeest is a highly acclaimed lighting and set designer whose work has enriched countless productions worldwide. Throughout his impressive career, Trent has designed for theatre, opera, musicals, concerts, events, and even public art installations.
A graduate of the esteemed WAAPA, Trent made his mainstage debut with The Sapphires for Black Swan/ Belvoir. He’s since gone on to light productions of Muriel’s Wedding The Musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Boy from Oz, and the sensational opera The Rabbits, for which he won a WA Performing Arts Award and earned a Green Room Award nomination.
Outside of musicals, Trent has worked extensively in theatre, including Prima Facie and Kill Climate Deniers for Griffin Theatre Company, Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Hay Fever for the STC, and I Am Eora for Sydney Festival.
In 2023, Trent also served as the Lighting Director of Night Mass at Dark Mofo, the annual arts and culture festival held by the MONA in Hobart.
Trent is also the designer of our excellent Club House icon, the gold X.
Dans is a celebrated producer who has worked on a diverse array of productions for companies like Back to Back Theatre and Circus Oz, as well as touring with the world-famous Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.
Throughout her career, Dans has contributed to the success of countless projects, including New York’s multi-venue dance festival, LaMama Moves.
