The Sugar Wife (Abbey Theatre version) (NHB Modern Plays)

By Elizabeth Kuti

'We choose the world we live in. We make it, day by day...'
Dublin, 1850. The delicate balance at the heart of an affluent couple's marriage and family business is challenged when two visitors – a former enslaved woman and her emancipator – come to Ireland to speak to the public about trade, money and the abolition of slavery.
Exploring the dark side of global commodities, Elizabeth Kuti's's play The Sugar Wife offers an engrossing examination of sexual politics and political morality.
The play won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 2006. It was first produced by Rough Magic, and performed at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, in 2005, before transferring to Soho Theatre, London. It was revived, in the version published here, at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in 2024, directed by Annabelle Comyn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Jun 20, 2024
• ISBN: 9781788508018

Elizabeth Kuti

Elizabeth Kuti is a playwright and lecturer in drama. Her play The Sugar Wife won the 2006 Susan Smith Blackburn Award. Her plays include: Fishskin Trousers (Finborough Theatre, 2013; revived at Park Theatre, London, 2017); The Six-Days World (Finborough Theatre, London, 2007); and The Sugar Wife (Rough Magic, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, 2005; Soho Theatre, London, 2006; Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 2024). She teaches drama and playwriting at the University of Essex; and is a long-term collaborator with director Robert Price, with whom she founded Lubkinfinds Theatre.

Book preview

Elizabeth Kuti

THE SUGAR

WIFE

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Production Details

About the Abbey Theatre

Original Production Details

Dedication

Characters

The Sugar Wife

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

An Abbey Theatre production, The Sugar Wife opened at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 18 June 2024.

CREATIVES

Cast

COMPANY

ABOUT THE ABBEY THEATRE

As Ireland’s national theatre, the Abbey Theatre’s ambition is to enrich the cultural lives of everyone with a curiosity for and interest in Irish theatre, stories, artists and culture. Courage and imagination are at the heart of our storytelling, while inclusivity, diversity and equality are at the core of our thinking. Led by Co-Directors Caitríona McLaughlin (Artistic Director) and Mark O’Brien (Executive Director), the Abbey Theatre celebrates both the rich canon of Irish dramatic writing and the potential of future generations of Irish theatre artists.

Ireland has a rich history of theatre and playwriting and extraordinary actors, designers and directors. Artists are at the heart of our organisation, with Marina Carr and Conor McPherson as Senior Associate Playwrights and Caroline Byrne as Associate Director.

Our stories teach us what it is to belong, what it is to be excluded and to exclude. Artistically our programme is built on twin impulses, and around two questions: ‘who we were, and who are we now?’ We interrogate our classical canon with an urgency about what makes it speak to this moment. On our stages we find and champion new voices and new ways of seeing; our purpose – to identify combinations of characters we are yet to meet, having conversations we are yet to hear.

www.abbeytheatre.ie

The Sugar Wife received its world premiere at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, on 8 April 2005, with the following cast:

For George and Susan Kuti

and for Robert, always, with love

Characters

HANNAH TEWKLEY, a woman from Dublin and a Quaker

SAMUEL TEWKLEY, Hannah’s husband, founder of Tewkley’s Tea and Coffee Merchants, from Dublin

ALFRED DARBY, a man originally from Yorkshire and an ex-Quaker

SARAH WORTH, a woman formerly enslaved in Georgia, America

MARTHA RYAN, a woman from Dublin

The action of the play takes place in Dublin, from 8 January to 20 March, 1850.

Note on Text

This edition indicates the captions that were projected at the start of scenes, in the Abbey Theatre production of 2024. I’ve retained these to give future directors the option of using them if they wish.

This ebook was created before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

Scene One: Meeting

CAPTION:

March 20th 1850

Quaker Meeting House, Eustace Street, Dublin

Midweek Meeting. Evening

HANNAH and SAMUEL are at Midweek Meeting. Silence. Stillness.

Then – suddenly – the seemingly calm external surface cracks open, and we are in their inner world of tumult:

HANNAH. – thy servant waits in darkness, in this silent assembly of souls, waits, for a sign, a sign oh Seed of Light, a sign – this bitter cup before me –

SAMUEL. – and in this short life – to have the chance to love and create and yet to throw it away, to pour it away –

HANNAH. – what could pull us back from this dark tunnel? he asks, because I see no end, and it frightens me – . But Samuel – . I refused her! – I refused – how many times –

SAMUEL. – when I think of her – taking and taking – and when did she give to me, when were her eyes turned towards me? Hannah – Hannah –

HANNAH. – standing there at last with the money in my hand – and she’s – Even with her face still covered, even as I reached to pull back the sheet – oh Seed of Light, oh Christ, oh Seed sown in the heart, I leap, I struggle, but the waves, the waves overwhelm me – standing there with an alphabet for her – and I knew it was too late, I knew –

SAMUEL. Would I be glad? Would I be relieved? For both of us – To admit defeat – to call a halt – to put down this burden? And give her what she seems to want – an end to this,