Wine, Wit & Mrs Wellfed: The Different Widows

The second of three evenings with the Bridge Theatre Company, exploring the witty work of Mary Pix.

A litany of farcical intrigues occurs in the house of Lady Gaylove, a woman who stands on her "decorums” and who denies the existence of her grown-up children, lest anyone should guess her age. Her sister, however, is an altogether different class of widow who arrives on the scene on a mission very much her own. Will she succeed…?

The Different Widows is technically penned by "anon” – Mary Pix’s reaction to having been satirised in The Female Wits and plagiarised by a male writer at Drury lane. In fact, authorship was not always advertised on playbills or play texts of the period, making it easier for women writers to be judged on their own merit. This play, however, bears her unmistakable hallmark combination of skilful characterisation and farce.