Emilia

'A spicy work of biographical conjecture ... It's also a rousing reminder of the countless creative women who have been written out of history or have had to fight relentlessly to make themselves heard.' EVENING STANDARD
'The great virtue of Lloyd Malcolm's speculative history lies in its passion and anger: it ends with a blazing address to the audience that is virtually a call to arms. It is throughout, however, a highly theatrical piece ... In rescuing Emilia from the shades, [the play] gives her dramatic life and polemical potency.' GUARDIAN
The little we know of Emilia Bassano Lanier (1569 - 1645) is that she may have been the Dark Lady of Shakespeare's Sonnets, mistress of Lord Chamberlain, one of the first English female poets to be published, a mother, teacher who founded a school for women, and radical feminist with North African ancestry.
Living at a time when women had such limited opportunities, Emilia Lanier is therefore a fascinating subject for this speculative history. In telling her story, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm represents the stories of women everywhere whose narratives have been written out of history.
Originally commissioned for Shakespeare's Globe with an all-female cast, Emilia is published here as a Methuen Drama Student Edition with commentary and notes by Elizabeth Schafer, Professor of Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.

Morgan Lloyd Malcolm is a playwright and screenwriter. Her play Emilia (Shakespeare's Globe, 2018) transferred to the West End the following year. Her play Belongings premiered at the Hampstead Theatre and Trafalgar Studios (2011) and was shortlisted for the Charles Wintour Most Promising Playwright Award and her play The Wasp at Hampstead Theatre also transferred to Trafalgar Studios in 2015. She has co-written several acclaimed immersive site-specific plays with Katie Lyons, produced by Look Left Look Right, including You Once Said Yes, Above and Beyond and Once Upon a Christmas. She wrote and performed comedy for several years as part of the comedy group Trippplicate. She was part of the writing team for four of the Lyric Hammersmith's pantomimes from 2009-2012 and wrote (solo) the Bolton Octagon's Christmas plays for 2013 and 2014. She has written two large community plays for the Old Vic New Voices: Platform and Epidemic. She formed Terrifying Women with Abi Zakarian, Sampira and Amanda Castro in 2021 with an aim to producing more horror in theatre. She is also working in Film and Television; her film adaptation of her play The Wasp is due out in 2023 and her TV adaptation of Josephine Hart's Damage is also due out on Netflix in 2023.
Elizabeth Schafer is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her work focuses on Shakespeare in production, women's work with Shakespeare and Australian drama and theatre.

Chronology
COMMENTARY
CHARACTERS - Historical versus fictional / Emilia Lanier Bassano (1560-1645)
NARRATIVE
PUBLIC HISTORY - Comparative works as diverse as Upstart Crow, Horrible Histories, Downton Abbey, Hamilton and Six in terms of dramatically subverting traditional histories
FEMINISM
AUDIENCE DEMOGRAPHIC
DRAMATIC DEVICES - the 3 Emilias, Brecht, epic theatre, feminist theatre, Shakespeare's history plays, all-female cast
SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE
INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT
PLAY TEXT
FURTHER READING