Bull in a China Shop
by Bryna Turner

Name: Bull in a China Shop
Brand: Bryna Turner
SKU: 9780573706554
Rating: 4.13 (62 reviews)

Bull in a China Shop Book Cover — Bull in a China Shop Cover

Highlights

Female

90 mins 1930s All Women Unit Set/Multiple Settings Period Costumes Comedy

Synopsis

Inspired by the real letters between Mary Woolley and Jeannette Marks spanning from 1899 to 1937, this fast-paced comedy asks: What is revolution?

What does it mean to be at odds with the world?

How do we fulfill our potential?

And how the hell do we grow old together?

Press Reviews

"Critic’s Pick! “A pugnacious, tender and gloriously funny new play. Bryna Turner makes an immensely auspicious professional playwriting debut... Bull in a China Shop is passionate, joyous and radiant with life!"
— The New York Times

"★★★★! “Bull in a China Shop does the sisterhood proud! Heartbreaking, hilarious and delectable."
— Time Out New York

"Playwright Bryna Turner’s Bull in a China Shop has a quality of essential joy that makes it hard at times to remember that these 19th/early 20th-century queer characters (mostly, anyway) are truly in the eye of a storm of social upheaval and anger... Though the stakes of their social activism are high, Bull is a romantic comedy at heart: kisses and fights and reconciliations and infatuated teenagers lolling about – fun, all the way through, but full of emotions and ideas that make it all mean something."
— Onstage North Texas

"A crystalline play... The Brooklyn-based Turner has said they spent years trying to figure out how not to write a boring biographical account. They succeeded. Bull does a remarkable job telling a thematic story rather than getting bogged down in the details."
— Dallas Morning News

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
WOOLLEY Mary. The swagger of a gunslinger buttoned into an ankle length dress; a confident and caring partner to Marks.	—	—	Mary. The swagger of a gunslinger buttoned into an ankle length dress; a confident and caring partner to Marks.
MARKS Jeannette. A moody and fitful writer and partner, an enigmatic teacher; Woolley’s former student and current partner, ten years Woolley’s junior.	—	—	Jeannette. A moody and fitful writer and partner, an enigmatic teacher; Woolley’s former student and current partner, ten years Woolley’s junior.
DEAN WELSH A tight-lipped New England type. Woolley’s subordinate but Marks’ superior.	—	—	A tight-lipped New England type. Woolley’s subordinate but Marks’ superior.
PEARL The president of a secret society of fangirls of the relationship between Marks and Woolley, Marks’ obsessively devoted student.	—	—	The president of a secret society of fangirls of the relationship between Marks and Woolley, Marks’ obsessively devoted student.
FELICITY Marks’ roommate in a house off-campus named Sweet Pea. A professor in the Philosophy Department.	—	—	Marks’ roommate in a house off-campus named Sweet Pea. A professor in the Philosophy Department.
A note about casting This is an excavation of queer history, a history that has been buried and hidden and kept from us. It’s also a queering of history, a look at past events through a contemporary gaze. Queering history entails making room for the people who have been routinely denied a place in the narrative. There are no white men in this play, but it should not be filled entirely with white women either. This play is filled with purposeful anachronisms. That’s part of the point. This is a startlingly contemporary play.	—	—	This is an excavation of queer history, a history that has been buried and hidden and kept from us. It’s also a queering of history, a look at past events through a contemporary gaze. Queering history entails making room for the people who have been routinely denied a place in the narrative. There are no white men in this play, but it should not be filled entirely with white women either. This play is filled with purposeful anachronisms. That’s part of the point. This is a startlingly contemporary play.