Margaret of Anjou in Adaptation, #1
Starting a deep dive into this theatrical trend
Welcome to the new year! As a multi-hyphenate, my categories of work tend to ebb and flow. I’m pleased that 2026 is shaping up to be a year focused on writing and scholarship. First, I am writing a process paper on transferring Shakespeare’s Histories from stage to audio podcast. This is a topic I have been wanting to explore for a couple of years, and I’m thankful to the Shakespeare Association of America’s annual conference for providing a venue for that exploration. I’ll be taking part in a seminar on Audio Shakespeares and I’m looking forward to talking about what I learned about treating these plays not as artworks with a visual component, but remembering that in this form they contain aural information only. I think failing to let go of the imaginary stage is the most common mistake audio Shakespeare productions make, and it was a mistake that took me a long time to move past in BST’s process.
Then, unsurprisingly, I’ll get to spend a lot of time with Margaret of Anjou. First, I am halfway through the first draft of my novel, and my goal is to finish the draft this year. Second, my third academic review of a Margaret adaptation on stage will be coming out in a few months in Shakespeare Bulletin. Third, I will be presenting on a panel on Henry VI at the International Conference of Medieval Studies in May. It has been more then ten years now since my initial essay on adaptations centered on Margaret was published in the Palgrave Handbook of Shakespeare’s Queens, and I will be taking this opportunity to consider where this trend has come over the last ten years. I’m also planning to look at these works from a different direction. Previously, my main focus has been analyzing the political intent behind these adaptations and the various ways in which the creators’ feminism influenced their adaptations. Now I’d like to consider more deeply these works specifically as works of theatre and jump into the considerably more thorny ground of whether they are successful in their dramatic goals or not. Do they work? Why or why not?
In preparation for that talk, I am going to start a project on substack that I mentioned last year: a survey of the adaptations to this point. Everyone tends to be quite surprised, even the people working on Margaret adaptations, when I tell them that I have found at least 38 adaptations, with the first one being produced in 1977. Even though a simple internet search can bring up information about several of these, I have found that most directors and adaptors in that last couple of years seem unaware that they are participating in a well-established trend. Some mistakingly think they are the first to come up with this idea. Though this has been becoming less likely, as we’ve now seen the first traditional publication of a Margaret adaptation as its own script: Jeanie O’Hare’s Queen Margaret, published by Nick Hern Books in 2018. And in America, we have seen multiple productions of a Margaret adaptation not by its original creators: Whitney White, one of the more widely known adaptors due to her Broadway and regional credits, created By the Queen, which premiered at Trinity Rep in 2023, directed by Brian McEleney. It was subsequently produced in 2024 by Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, directed by Shana Cooper, and received a staged reading at the Folger Shakespeare Library in 2025 directed by Nicole Brewer. (There are other adaptations that can be talked about in terms of publication and multiple productions, but I’ll get to those details later on).
Starting next week, I’ll explore the adaptations I know about, one-by-one. I’m hoping this will introduce the adaptations to a wider audience, as well as possibly helping me learn more about them, as someone may run across these blogs who can fill in gaps in my knowledge. It should prove to be an interesting look at theatre-makers’ profound interest in this character and the art of adaptation. As we go through this special niche of theatre performance history, let me know if you have any questions!