THE SUGAR WIFE Playwright Elizabeth Kuti Will Conduct Post-Show Q&A at Theater Wit

THE SUGAR WIFE, which began previews on Saturday, March 28 and will open on Thursday, April 2, 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. Kuti’s other published plays, which have been translated into German and Greek and have been performed in Europe, Canada and the USA, include TREEHOUSES (Peacock Theatre, Dublin and the Northcott Theatre, Exeter); THE WHISPERERS (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh and Irish tour); and THE SIX-DAYS WORLD (Finborough Theatre, London; developed while on attachment at National Theatre Studio); THE BROKEN TOKEN (Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds; Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, 2014); UNITED INCANDESCENT (commissioned by The National Theatre, with readings at the Vanburgh Theatre, Rada, and at the Old Red Lion, 2015-16); and FISHSKIN TROUSERS (Park Theatre, 2017; Finborough Theatre, 2013). As an actor, she has played some of the greatest roles in theatre for leading companies throughout Ireland and the UK, including the title role of the Colleen Bawn in THE COLLEEN BAWN (Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and Lyttelton Theatre, NT, London) and Olivia in TWELFTH NIGHT (Lyric Theatre, Belfast); Stella in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (Annie Ryan and Corn Exchange, Dublin); and Maria in THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL (Rough Magic, Dublin). She has written extensively for BBC Radio and is currently a Professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre at the University of Essex in England.

Set in 1850, THE SUGAR WIFE 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 UK theater website THE STAGE said “Elizabeth Kuti’s drama set in famine-stricken Ireland speaks eloquently to our own turbulent times” 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.