The First Draft of Countess Bathory is complete! Even better, it’s my shortest Verse play yet.
Modeled loosely on Richard III, Bathory takes all the myths and exaggerated rumor as fact, and paints the Blood Countess as an abusive, unstable fiend. She is harried by misogyny, religious persecution, and the machinations of those that owe her family money; but for all that she is as guilty as the rumor-mongers say.
Bathory is the fourth play in a seven-part series: King Saul Part I, A Thousand Times Goodnight, King Saul Part II, Countess Bathory, The Wayward Women, Sycorax, and The Passion of Boudicca. Five of these plays are ‘about’ women, though only two of them have predominantly female casts. I suppose this is my guilty reaction to the King Saul plays, which feature only three small female roles. In any event, I started this project to create more Verse opportunities, and there’s no one who needs more Verse opportunities than the average female actor.