Chautauqua Theater Company Guest Artists Kate Hamill, as Artemisia Gentileschi, and Wynn Harmon, left, as Orazio Gentileschi, perform during a dress rehearsal of Hamill’s The Light and The Dark (the life and times of Artemisia Gentileschi) Friday in Bratton Theater.
From now through the end of the 2024 season, Chautauqua Theater Company will transport audiences to 17th-century Italy in the world premiere of award-winning playwright and actor Kate Hamill’s newest play, The Light and The Dark, which follows the life of revolutionary Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi.
Spearheaded by Producing Artistic Director Jade King Carroll as director, Hamill’s latest work had its CTC debut last summer with its first public reading to a sold-out audience. Last December, Chautauqua produced a private reading and workshop in New York City in partnership with the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.
Now, as a finishing commission that will journey to Primary Stages in the winter, the story of a celebrated artist’s resilience and the transformative power of artistic expression takes over the stage with previews beginning at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Bratton Theater.
“It’s a beautiful play and a classic tale,” Carroll said. “It’s not just about the trials and tribulations that (Gentileschi) went through, but what it is to become a female artist, to overcome so much and to find your own voice.”
Gentileschi, the most successful female painter of the 17th century, was a gifted artist during a time when women had very few opportunities to express themselves creatively. Originally working in the style of Caravaggio, as his only female follower, Gentileschi was the first woman to join the Academy of the Arts of Drawing in Florence.
In many of her paintings, she showcased women from mythology, and drew inspiration from Biblical texts and stories; much of her work displayed women as figures of power and strength, while highlighting her techniques of naturalism and color. However, her accomplishments as an artist were overshadowed; the painter Agostino Tassi raped her in 1612, and a harrowing trial followed. The Light and The Dark explores Gentileschi’s art and rage, and how both continue to resonate in the modern age.
“Throughout her life, particularly after she was in Rome and moved to Florence, she always felt the discrepancy and misogyny and wanted to not be treated differently than men,” said Kristin Leahey. “Because of life experiences that she had, she also felt like women were often portrayed as victims, and that they were secondary.”
As the play’s dramaturg, Leahey conducted a great deal of research while closely working with Hamill, Carroll and the rest of the team to further develop the show as a new work.
An assistant professor at Boston University who has worked as a freelance theater artist on stages such as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and The Kennedy Center, Leahey has spent a majority of the rehearsal process diving into The Light and The Dark’s language, characters and message to the audience.
Leahey has a long working relationship with Hamill, as the two have collaborated on over 10 projects together. Leahey said Hamill became influenced by Gentileschi’s art while seeing her paintings in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence during her honeymoon, and after she had written the play, she knew she wanted to bring Leahey on board.
“We’re essentially creating our own world and creating our own reality,” Leahey said. “Some things are true to Artemisia’s life, and some things are changed to fit the theatricality of the world that we’re in.”
With this mix of fact and fiction, The Light and The Dark put Gentileschi’s legacy center stage. During a time when the majority of women could not read or write, and few female artists achieved the same success enjoyed by men, Leahey said Gentileschi aimed to change the narrative. This is shown in one of Gentileschi’s most famous works, “Judith Slaying Holofernes,” evoked in the poster art for CTC’s production. The painting portrays the assassination of the Assyrian general Holofernes by the Israelite heroine Judith, in an episode from the apocryphal Book of Judith in the Old Testament. The painting shows Judith, with the help of her maidservant Abra, beheading Holofernes while he is asleep.
Early feminist critics viewed the piece as Gentileschi’s artistic revenge following her rape by Tassi; it serves as one of her most enduring works.
Reflecting on her experience with The Light and The Dark, Leahey said it has been rewarding to examine the history of Gentileschi’s life and paintings, and draw connections to the present.
“It’s so interesting to look at the story of a woman from the 1500s and 1600s and how prescient it is for an examination of today, and how her life was so full and complex,” she said.
As CTC embarks upon the world premiere of Hamill’s work, Leahey hopes audiences will reflect not only on how Gentileschi persevered as a person and artist, but on the numerous female artists throughout — and often overlooked by — history.
“There were really fascinating and wonderful female artists throughout all time, and they didn’t always come from one class of people and they weren’t always well trained,” she said. “People even during that period of time could survive, sustain and do revolutionary things. They were not victims; they were survivors — and they can change the world.”
