{"id":171901,"date":"2026-02-19T21:01:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/171901\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T21:01:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:01:21","slug":"review-amphibian-stts-bull-in-a-china-shop-shines-bright-with-queer-romance-and-female-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/171901\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Amphibian\/STT’s ‘Bull in a China Shop’ shines bright with queer romance and female agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

The L word at Amphibian Stage goes all the way back to 1901 New England. In Bull in a China Shop, Bryna Turner\u2019s play tells the herstory of Mary Woolley and her lover, writer Jeannette Marks. And while their lesbian love is front and center, this is hardly just a queer play. Woolley would be named the first woman president of Mount Holyoke College and Turner as well as director Kels Ervi delivered a marvelous play about empowerment, rights and ambition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The story spans some 40 years when Woolley arrives at Holyoke and begins a shift that changes not only the course of the school, but also the relationship between the two intellects played by Emily Scott Banks as Mary and Dani Nelson as Marks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Banks had a presence that immediately radiated Mary\u2019s confidence. She had such a gravity to her performance crafted with complex layers that humanized Mary wholly. Nelson was a formidable match who countered with an explosive portrayal of Jeannette that was both defiant and tender.\u00a0 The two also brought a distinguished passion to Mary and Jeannette\u2019s relationship. A dynamic duo indeed.<\/p>\n

Their chemistry expanded to its fellow castmates. Laurel Lynn Collins\u2019 performances Dean Welsh was delicately steadfast as Woolley\u2019s professional confidant who straddled the line of both critical and a fan of Woolley\u2019s work. Nicole Renee Johnson brought a fiery effusiveness to the suffragette activist Felicity. As Jeanette\u2019s student Pearl who falls for her teacher, Mia M. Azuaje was a marvel at juggling the character\u2019s naivete and sexual awakening. Her declaration of love was both a sad and humorous moment that she navigated sublimely with desperate energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Albeit a period piece, Turner\u2019s play was decidedly modern. Pop punk music by female-identifying artists punctuated the scenes but also echoed the show\u2019s historic feminism to today\u2019s. The play burst from its gate with Bikini Girl\u2019s \u201cRebel Girl\u201d with all the actors moshing if you will on stage that certainly prefaced the show with an unexpected vigor that reverberated until the end. Remaining song clips mostly played during scene changes and at the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, the volume would often be jarring. But the songs added a subtle dialogue to the show with selections by Tegan and Sary, Tracy Chapman, Joan Jett and others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leah Mazur\u2019s raised platform set was a curious touch. This allowed the play to perform on two levels with most of the action on the higher plane that was decked out in set furniture and a bookcase backing. The effect gave a grandness to the show but I was unsure of any intentional meaning behind it.\u00a0That being said, depending on your seat, it can be easy to miss some of the dramatic action, but I don\u2019t fault it either as it lifted these historic women in a metaphorical sense. <\/p>\n

The actors mostly held to one costume which was quite all right because Murell Horton\u2019s work was exquisite. The fabrics reflected a certain propriety for women at that time, but Horton\u2019s lines and cuts were executed to perfection on each actor. They helped define each character but also flattered the actors with sophistication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ervi\u2019s direction felt effortless as the cast delivered each scene with comfort. They allowed Bull in a China Shop to breathe at its own pace which resulted in a production that beatuifully expressed Turner\u2019s complicated queer romance and enlightening real life story into a worthwhile experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bull is a co-production by Amphibian Stage and Second Thought Theatre. The play runs through March 1 and will play at Second Thought in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2013Rich Lopez<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The L word at Amphibian Stage goes all the way back to 1901 New England. In Bull in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[6818,69481,69482,116,118,117,69483,69484,69485,2039,15865,6529,2040,9340],"class_list":["post-171901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-amphibian-stage","tag-bryna-turner","tag-bull-in-a-china-shop","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-jeannette-marks","tag-kels-ervi","tag-mary-woolley","tag-rich-lopez","tag-second-thought-theatre","tag-stage","tag-stage-notes","tag-theater-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}