Emma Donoghue: Selected Plays: Kissing the Witch; Don't Die Wondering; Trespasses; Ladies and Gentlemen; I Know My Own Heart

by Emma Donoghue

The first collection of plays from Booker Prize and Orange Prize finalist and author of international bestseller Room, Emma Donoghue. Contains the plays Kissing the Witch, Don’t Die Wondering, Trespasses, Ladies and Gentlemen, and I Know My Own Heart KISSING THE WITCH Adapted from her book of thirteen revisionist fairy tales of the same name, this play interweaves four classic plots – Beauty and the Beast, Donkeyskin, the Goose Girl, the Little Mermaid – with an invented one about a desperate girl going to a witch for help. Kissing the Witch finds the gritty in the fantastical, and excavates magic to find what’s really going on. TRESPASSES Set over three days in 1661, Trespasses is inspired by the judge’s own account of one of the tiny handful of witch trials that ever took place in Ireland. It asks why a servant girl who fell into fits would have put the blame on an old beggarwoman – but also, more timeless questions about the clashing cultures that have to share a small island country. Trespasses is about faith and superstition, politics and class, sadism and love. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN This play with songs, set mostly in the dressing rooms of busy vaudeville theatres all over North America, was inspired by a real same-sex wedding that took place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1886. It resurrects a ragtag troupe of emigrants - most notably, male impersonator Annie Hindle, ‘a man’s widow and a woman’s widower’, as the tabloids called her. With a light touch, Ladies and Gentleman explores the ways we perform our roles, both on and off stage. I KNOW MY OWN HEART Inspired by the secret coded diaries of Yorkshire gentlewoman Anne Lister, this play subverts all the conventions of Regency romance. Teasing out the entangled lives of mannish, arrogant Lister (nicknamed 'Gentleman Jack') and three of her many lovers, I Know My Own Heart explores the different choices women made in a time of limits and prohibitions. DON’T DIE WONDERING When a restaurant cook loses her job because of a homophobic customer, she mounts a one-woman picket in protest. The police officer assigned to protect her is her nemesis from schooldays. This one-act comedy, set in a fictional small town, stages a battle between old and new elements of Irish culture.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Lesbian, Historical

322 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 2015

About the author

Grew up in Ireland, 20s in England doing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature, since then in Canada. Best known for my novel, film and play ROOM, also other contemporary and historical novels and short stories, non-fiction, theatre and middle-grade novels.

Reviews

[Corrie]

I'm not going to say too much about it. It's always a bit weird reading a play because you miss all the inner dialogue, it's all tell. But Emma Donoghue is a marvellous writer and I didn't want to miss this.

I liked I know My Own Heart best because it was about Anne Lister (she of the famous diaries). The author was somewhat liberal with the truth as she explains, but even with this re-imagining I still could find the spirit of Lister.

f/f

Themes: you clearly miss some element when you read a play, it needs to be seen.

4 stars

[David]

Makes me want to direct again. Of the five plays my favourite is the one-act "Don't Die Wondering," which is a comedy about the serious-enough issue of discrimination against sexual 'otherness.' The historical plays are equally interesting in confronting both double-standards and sundry avenues of self-expression during earlier, probably even less safe/welcoming eras. Donoghue writes plays I can imagine doing, either as actor or director. I'd even be glad to play some of the oppressive men.

[M.]

As an Irish American, I find myself interested in what modern Ireland looks like. Americans have a funny relationship with their histories, and so much of our cultural identities can be lost as our families have assimilated to American culture. (Whatever "American culture" even means. But you get me.) That being said, I was glad to find small touches of Irish culture, life, and humor within these works.

Donoghue's collection also features LGBTQ+ characters and themes. As for her female characters, Donoghue is a female actor's dream, as her women are given the full dramatic ranges usually alotted to male characters.

Here is a bit about some of the plays you can find in the collection:


"Don't Die Wondering" addressed what a small town in Ireland is like for a young, gay woman. Of course it is not representational of Irish attitudes as a whole, but if you are interested in LGBTQ+ narratives in relation to modern Ireland, I would highly recommend it. The play was on BBC Radio 4 in 2000.

"Trespasses" is set in 1661. It is based off the a judge's account of the witch trials that took place in Ireland, during this time period.
What more can I say? Witches. Ireland. Lying, creepy girls.

Just read it.

"Ladies and Gentleman" is an often charming (and very sad, thanks Donoghue) account of vaudeville theaters in in the Midwest. It is inspired by the real account of a same-sex couple in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Memorable characters. Lots of class. Then lots of sad.

"I Know My Own Heart" serves as a fictionalized dramatization of the diaries of Regency era woman, Anne Lister. Although many points of the plot strayed from Lister's actual life, the play served as an exploration of a woman's life as she pushed the boundaries of her constrictive society, especially in the areas of gender and sexuality.

"Kissing the Witch" is the answer to every woman's prayer who watched and hated Disney princess films. Burrowing from classic, Grimm-styled fairy tales, this play takes the characters we all know, but there's a twist--the prince is ditched.

No damsels in distress here.

[Ellie]

Fantastic!
A very enjoyable read - I'd love to see these performed one day.
I particularly loved Kissing the Witch - I really want to read the novel now!
Trespasses was good, although sad.
I would have liked Know My Own Heart more if it was more historically accurate.
Ladies and Gentleman was fun, but I'd have preferred a happier ending.
Don't Die Wondering was pretty good, but very brief.

[Sandra de Helen]

A collection of stage plays by the brilliant Emma Donoghue. I’d like this for my own play library. I was lucky enough to see a production of Trespasses (one in this collection) in Galway, Ireland in 1997. This collection also includes Kissing the Witch, I Know My Own Heart, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Don’t Die Wondering.

[Molly Ferguson]

"I Know my Own Heart" is a beautiful play, the one of this collection that works best as a drama, I think. If you like Donoghue's lesbian re-visionings of history, you'll like these.

[Jocelyn H]

I read this specifically for the play, "I Know My Own Heart". Emma Donoghue wrote a play about Anne Lister, back in 1993, based off of Helena Whitbread's first collection of Lister's diaries and taking place during the same time period. The play was first performed in Dublin in 1993.

The play is based on Anne Lister's diaries, with some details changed and some individual characters in the play acting as amalgamations of multiple people in Anne's life. The play definitely has a sense of Anne's spirit. Quite enjoyable! And fun to know that there was a play about Anne Lister performed in Dublin in 1993.

[Tati Arias]

Perhaps one of the best plays I have ever read