Having directed both of the other two farces in the past – John John many times with different casts in locations both indoors and out, I was excited to take on the challenge of a play and playwright I knew nothing about. I’m very grateful to Charlotte Steenbrugge for suggesting this delightful farce by Cornelis Evereart, the well-known 16th century Flemish rederijker (rhetorician), and for her help with understanding and occasionally rewriting a somewhat stilted translation from Middle Dutch. Evereart’s play takes stereotypical misogyny to an amusing new level as the wife manages to talk her way out of a potentially damaging situation to restore marital harmony at the end. The Three Female Saints in the final line refers to the hall in Bruges where the play was performed. For more about Evereart and the rederijkers see “About Cornelis Everaert”. When thinking about how to do the play with the smallest possible cast, I realized that my talented friend Nell Coleman’s puppets could be the sons. From then on the cartoony puppetry aspect of the play grew in my imagination every time I read it. Fortunately, my human actors are quite capable of holding their own in this crazy world. Enjoy!
— Linda J. Phillips
