"Manydown" is a tight, portable thirty-minute dramedy, written for two women or nonbinary actors, which imagines one important night in the life of Jane Austen and her beloved sister.

​

The night is December 2nd, 1802 and Jane is only two weeks away from her twenty-seventh birthday — the threshold of spinsterhood — facing down a lifetime of social invisibility and dependence on the charity of her brothers. Suddenly, she receives a windfall: a proposal of marriage from a rich family friend with a fabulous estate, Manydown.

 

She accepts him, of course . . . but as soon as she's alone with Cassandra, Jane's certainty unravels. Can you be an authoress if you're the mistress of Manydown? What kind of love, and how much, is enough to sustain a marriage — or for that matter, a life?

 

A poignant and funny celebration of sisterhood and the artist's calling, "Manydown" has been performed at libraries, schools, festivals, conferences, and theatres in five US states, as well as in the UK and New Zealand.

​

To inquire about licensing the script, or to arrange for The Holy Theatre to produce "Manydown" at your institution, please email the playwright here.