Mary Woolley became president of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 1901, bringing along her lover and former student Jeannette Marks to teach English. The history books say they never publicly acknowledged their romantic relationship. But in Bull in a China Shop, Bryna Turner’s crystalline play covering Woolley’s 36 years running the women’s liberal arts school, it’s an open secret on campus.
The Brooklyn-based Turner, who goes by they/them pronouns, 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. What’s depicted focuses on the advances these early feminists made at the school and in society, and the personal tensions between the relentlessly radical Marks and the more politic Woolley. Bull is based on their letters while never quoting them directly.
Kels Ervi, director of a streamlined, swiftly moving production at Amphibian Stage in Fort Worth, draws strong, confident performances from everyone in the first-rate cast. Though Woolley is ostensibly the title character, portrayed with a winning grace by Emily Scott Banks, it’s Dani Nelson’s nuanced portrayal of the fiery Marks that’s at the center of the play. Her lecture on Orlando, Virginia Woolf’s fantastical 1928 novel about an English nobleman who turns into a woman halfway through his centuries-long life, is a showstopper.
The show’s also a coming-out party for the young actor Mia Azuaje, who’s done solid work in other local productions. In Bull, she flashes serious chops in the role of Pearl, the increasingly lusty head of a Marks admiration society at Holyoke. In one scene, she brings a boombox to her mentor’s window, blasting Sinead O’Connor’s hit version of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” while pleading and weeping.
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Mia Azuaje as Pearl, a Mount Holyoke student and president of the secret Jeannette Marks fan club.
Evan Michael Woods
The cast of Amphibian Stage’s production of “Bull in a China Shop” rocking out to Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl” at the top of the show.
Evan Michael Woods
Music plays a central role throughout the Amphibian Stage production, acting as a transition between scenes and lightening the drama. The show opens loudly with Bikini Kill’s punk anthem “Rebel Girl,” Banks, Nelson, Azuaje and co-stars Laurel Lynn Collins and Nicole Renee Johnson striking poses and lip-syncing. The soundtrack to which they dance and mouth the words also includes iconic songs by Madonna (“Like a Prayer”), Tracy Chapman (“Give Me One Reason”) and Joan Jett (“Bad Reputation”). A playlist is available on Spotify.
The action takes place in a gorgeous, two-level cherrywood library created by scenic designer Leah Mazur. Murell Horton’s costumes are beautifully period correct.
As Woolley consolidates power, the righteous Marks worries Woolley’s rise is more important to her than the cause. For one thing, Woolley is slow coming around on suffrage. “When did you turn into such an opportunist?” Marks asks.
Her love for Woolley is just as fierce. During a discussion of past relationships, Marks declares, “I hate you for existing before I met you.”
Banks and Nelson have great chemistry.
Collins as the Holyoke dean and Johnson as a philosophy professor act as voices of reason and sometimes resistance to Woolley’s wholesale changes to the school’s curriculum and Marks’ impatience with the pace of progress.
There’s not a more satisfying show currently on the boards in North Texas.
Details
Through March 1 at 120 S. Main St., Fort Worth. $20-$60. amphibianstage.com.
Dani Nelson as Jeannette Marks (left) and Emily Scott Banks as Marks’ mentor-lover Mary Woolley.
Evan Michael Woods
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