Love and Politics on the Edge of Change

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Photo by Adam Laberge

Kith & Kin Theatre Collective: ‘Bull in a China Shop’

Kith & Kin Theatre Collective: ‘Bull in a China Shop’

Kith & Kin Theatre Collective stages a deep meditation on the nature of love, romance and revolution as it presents playwright Bryna Turner’s historical drama Bull in a China Shop. Director Marie Helser has done a stunning job of bringing together a cleverly nuanced all-woman cast for the story of a romantic power couple at the heart of change on the campus of a tiny women’s seminary on the east coast at the dawn of the 20th century. 

Sophie Keppler is cooly incandescent as Professor Woolley—a ambitious suffragette who has been hired to lead the struggling Mount Holyoke College. Kristina Hinako brings an emotionally adroit presence to the stage as Woolley’s partner Jeannette Marks. She’s a writer who is extremely reluctant to head off to a tiny institution in the middle of nowhere. Her love of Woolley and the revolution she seeks move her into a faculty position which turns out to be a great challenge for her. 

Practical concerns at the struggling college temper Woolley’s aspirations, placing her at odds with Prof. Marks in a tense relationship that only gets more intense as politics get more tenuous. Through it all, Keppler and Hinaka maintain a multi-layered chemistry that weaves an incredibly intricate view of sophisticated romance. Rarely is the concept of true romantic love exposed with such impressive heart and attention to detail as it is between Keppler and Hinaka. Contrasting against this complexity is the romantic attraction between Professor Marks and her student Pearl. Grace Ritcher manages a passionate and youthful energy as a woman falling for her professor against her own better judgment as the world swiftly changes around the tenuous course of a tiny school on the leading edge of the 20th century. 

Kith & Kin Theatre Collective’s production of Bull in a China Shop runs through Nov. 10 at Inspiration Studios, 1500 S. 73rd St. For ticket reservations and more, visit kithandkintheatre.com.