A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Creature

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  3w, 3m

Heidi Schreck

Heidi Schreck conjures a collision of contemporary and medieval imaginations: a very funny, little bit scary new play about faith and its messengers.

Creature

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3w, 3m
Creature

Details

Summary

After being pestered by devils for more than half a year, Margery Kempe – new mother, mayor's daughter, and proprietress of a highly profitable beer business – is liberated from her torment by a vision of Jesus Christ in purple robes.

Visions are hard to come by, even in 1401. Should we trust the new Margery, with her fasting and her weeping and her chastity fixation, or burn her with the other heretics? Can a woman of insatiable appetites just up an audition for sainthood?

Playwright and Obie-winning actor Heidi Schreck conjures a collision of contemporary and medieval imaginations: a very funny, little bit scary new play about faith and its messengers.

History
Creature was first produced by Page 73 and New Georges Productions in New York City in October 2009 under the direction of Leigh Silverman.
Cast Attributes
Performing Groups

MARGERY KEMPE – the mayor’s daughter 
JOHN KEMPE – her husband 
FATHER THOMAS – a priest 
JULIANA – an anchoress 
NURSE 
JACOB – a young man 
ASMODEUS – a devil (may be played by Jacob) 
A HAZELNUT – (to be played by Juliana)

  • Time Period Medieval (6th-14th c.)
  • Setting Lynn, England, 1400-1401.

Media

“Spooky and a little ooky... Creature is no ordinary fright fest.” – Variety

"[Creature] indicates that the talented [Heidi Schreck] is a playwright to watch! – New York Post

"Saints can be hell to live with. That's part of the comedy of Creature, Heidi Schreck's absorbing new play about character and faith, loosely based on the life of Margery Kempe, a medieval Englishwoman who, after a difficult childbirth, saw visions of the Devil and Jesus." – The New York Times

"Spooky and a little ooky, but Creature is no ordinary fright fest. The superstitious fears and horrors Heidi Schreck conjures up in her offbeat historical play about the 15th-century English mystic Margery Kempe are largely psychological — and not unfamiliar to any modern woman stressed out by the demands of a new baby and a childish husband. Without denying the significance of religious faith in the intellectual darkness of the Middle Ages, scribe coyly suggests that having mystical visions was a great way for a clever woman to escape her onerous domestic duties and become a celebrity." – Variety

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $120 per performance

Scripts

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Authors

Heidi Schreck

Heidi Schreck
Heidi Schreck is a writer and performer living in Brooklyn. Her critically-acclaimed play What the Constitution Means to Me played an extended, sold-out run on Broadway in 2019, and was nominated for two Tony Awards. It had subsequent runs at the Kennedy Center in Washington ...
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