How did two playwright dudes in Jacobean London (more than 400 years ago!) write a woman’s role that, viewed today, challenges just about every constraint and convention that male-supremacist society mandates? I can’t wrap my head around that one. Moll Cutpurse, the masc-presenting heroine of T homas Middleton and Thomas Dekker‘s comedy The Roaring Girl, wears men’s clothing, asserts herself fearlessly, wields her sword fiercely, lives by her street wits, takes no guff, and eschews marriage. It’s as if the coauthors had a futuristic fantasy of gender not hidebound by hierarchy and misogyny. In fact, the gender-nonconforming character is based on an actual 17th-century Londoner named Mary Frith, who notoriously cross-dressed, fought, swore, smoked tobacco in public, and transgressed every notion of what a woman was supposed to be. Middleton and Dekker’s audience would have known of her by her ill repute and would have recognized the reference to her in their teasing title, The Roaring Girl (a play on “roaring boy,” then-current slang for a hooligan). Jae K. Gee as Moll, Daniel Brody as Sebastian, and Ayanna Fowler as Mary in ‘The Roaring Girl.’ Photo by Charlotte Hayes/Shutterbugs Creations. The gender rebel Moll Cutpurse serves as a subversive plot twist in Middleton and Dekker’s romantic farce: A young man of the gentry named Sebastian Wengrave is besotted with his betrothed, Mary Fitzallard, and, since these are the perpetual days of women as property, Mary’s dad is obliged to pay Sebastian’s dad a bride price (aka dowry). But Sebastian’s greedy dad considers the other dad’s payment chintzy, so he puts the kibosh on the marriage. Sebastian then plots to change his dad’s patriarchist mind by having a pretend affair with the scandalous Moll Cutpurse, figuring Pop will go apoplectic at the prospect of such a nuptial and will settle for Sebastian to wed his true love, Mary, instead. That’s basically the heat that gets this plot boiling. It then gets stirred with complicated subplots involving double casting of sundry servants and gallants. The script caught the eye of co-directors and co-adapters Sophia Menconi and Sarah Marie Wilson, who cut the play’s five acts down to an intermissionless 80 minutes. They then presented their project to Theatre Prometheus through its early-career director mentorship program, “Pitch Your Passion.” The result — a full production playing through June in the basement blackbox where Spooky Action performs — is a little uneven and frequently inscrutable (Menconi and Wilson have left the text’s archaicisms intact, relying on the actors’ broad delivery and mugging to make sense of the lines). But the show has some marvelous qualities, beginning with its gender-diverse, nonbinary, and trans-inclusive casting, and is buoyed by joyous playacting and agile physical comedy. My favorite scene, for instance, has Moll (a swaggering Jae K. Gee), Sebastian (an impish Daniel Brody), and Mary (a fetching Ayanna Fowler) all snuggled sweetly and silly on a sofa, as if having a cute cuddle to celebrate Sebastian’s stratagem. Speaking of that sofa, it’s upholstered in lavish pink satin, and it’s placed alongside two posh pink-brocade chairs on a platform surrounded by all-black surfaces covered in a surfeit of graffiti. The set by scenic designer August Henney, combining vintage elegance and contemporary funk, is a charmer. Trash cans stage left situate street scenes, and with a bra and other women’s undergarments dangling for no apparent reason from the ceiling, this set even seems to wink. TOP: John Jones as Davy Dapper, Erik Harrison as Sir Alexander, and Daniel Brody as Sebastian; ABOVE: Ayanna Fowler as Laxton and Jae K. Gee as Moll, in ‘The Roaring Girl.’ Photos by Charlotte Hayes/Shutterbugs Creations. Julia Rabson Harris choreographs multiple brawls and swordfights as well as much heavy stage kissing and other intimacies. Also punching up the production are a flashy lighting design by Molly Jane Brennan (with party lights above and spotlights pinpointing the fast action) and a sound design by Kiefer Cure featuring feminist punk. But it is the costume design by Regan A. McKay that really sells Menconi and Wilson’s conceptual mashup of past and present. Characters don various period pieces, like breeches and tights, mixed with tattered denim, rugged footwear, patchwork plaid, and black leather adorned with metal studs and safety pins. It’s Renaissance Fair meets counterculture flair. Erik Harrison does Sir Alexander Wengrave like a trad Boomer dad in Dockers, a point of staid convention amid the show’s general gender liberation. John Jones doubles amusingly as fey gallant Davy Dapper and unscrupulous Goshawk. Laura Artesi doubles almost gymnastically as servant Neatfoot and spy Trapdoor. Fowler smears on facial hair and shows up as Laxton, a wannabe john who propositions Moll disastrously (she rejects his presumption and wallops him in a fight). And Liv Speck makes brief but effective appearances as merchant Openwork and father of the bride Sir Guy Fitzallard. But it is Daniel Brody as Sebastian whose lithe and limber performance steals every scene he’s in. Fascinatingly, his face registers every nuance of what’s happening onstage, his physicality is delightfully antic, and he brings a boyish chemistry of lovebird adoration in his scenes with Fowler’s Mary that teels touchingly truehearted. His is a performance not to miss. And the play is worth pondering for its lens into social constraints on women and how disrupting gender norms unnerves and outrages some people while it centers others in themselves. Moll’s very existence is resistance, and Menconi and Wilson’s wry direction has a heck of a good time breaking down the binary. It’s not a spoiler to reveal what doesn’t happen in The Roaring Girl. Moll is not punished. She does not die or repent. She is not shunned. She remains a rebel. However, this much is a spoiler: Even Sebastian’s ornery dad comes around to acknowledging Moll’s moral worth and the error of his prejudice. Running Time: 80 minutes, no intermission. The Roaring Girl plays through June 27, 2026, presented by Theatre Prometheus in Spooky Action Theater’s performance space at Universalist National Memorial Church, 1810 16th St NW, Washington, DC. Performances are on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8:00 PM, and Sundays at 2:00 PM. Tickets are $25 ($10 for students and theater industry professionals), with a limited number of pay-what-you-can tickets (minimum $5) available for each performance. Purchase tickets online. The Roaring Girl By Thomas Dekker and Thomas MiddletonAdapted and directed by Sophia Menconi and Sarah Marie Wilson CASTLaura Artesi: Neatfoot / TrapdoorDaniel Brody: Sebastian WengraveAyanna Fowler: Mary Fitzallard / LaxtonJae K. Gee: Moll CutpurseErik Harrison: Sir Alexander WengraveJohn Jones: Davy Dapper / GoshawkLiv Speck: Openwork / Sir Guy FitzallardRebecca Husk: Swing Aron Spellane: Swing CREATIVE TEAMSophia Menconi: Co-Director Co-AdapterSarah Marie Wilson: Co-Director Co-AdapterMolly Jane Brennan: Lighting DesignAoife Creighton: Props DesignKiefer Cure: Sound DesignAugust Henney: Scenic DesignRegan A. McKay: Costume DesignJulia Rabson Harris: Fight / Intimacy ChoreographyMaddy Mustin: Production Stage ManagerPeri Walker: Production ManagerEric McMorris: Technical DirectorPaige Washington: Assistant Technical Director SEE ALSO:Theatre Prometheus announces cast and creative team for ‘The Roaring Girl’ (news story, May 25, 2026) ...read more read less