Cast Set for US Premiere Of THE SUGAR WIFE at Theater Wit
The production will star Annie Hogan in the title role.
The Artistic Home's 2025-26 season — its 25th — will conclude with the US premiere of The Sugar Wife, a 21st Century drama from Ireland by Elizabeth Kuti. It premiered at the Rough Magic Theatre Company in Dublin in 2005, was staged in London in 2006, and was revived in 2024 at Dublin's prestigious Abbey Theatre. Set in 1850, the play follows a Quaker woman who is torn between her work with the city's poor and her husband's prospering business built on the exploitation of the poor. They are visited by an English philanthropist and an African American tainted by the horrors of America's deep south.
The visit begins with the best of intentions; but a collision is unavoidable. The Sugar Wife will be performed from March 28 through May 3 at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont. Press opening is Thursday, April 2 at 7:30 pm.
Company member Kevin Hagan, whose directing credits include Ah, Wilderness! and Haunting Julia for Eclipse Theatre Company, will direct and lead a cast and production team that collectively has 48 Jeff Award nominations.
Hagan, with fifteen Jeff nominations and two wins for scenic design, will design The Sugar Wife sets in addition to directing the production. Hagan's cast, entirely composed of The Artistic Home ensemble members, will feature Annie Hogan, a Jeff Award nominee in 2019 for The Artistic Home's Requiem for a Heavyweight, in the title role of Hannah Tewkley. Todd Wojcik, who recently earned his third Jeff nomination for The Artistic Home's Hedda Gabler, winning in 2022 for The Pavilion, will be Hannah's businessman husband Samuel. Ashayla Calvin, who played the title role in The Artistic Home's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, will be the African American visitor Sarah Worth. John LaFlamboy, a Jeff nominee for his makeup design of Requiem for a Heavyweight, is playing the visiting philanthropist Alfred Darby. Two-time Jeff nominee Kristin Collins will be Martha Ryan, an impoverished woman who receives help from Hannah.
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