By Any Other Name

June 3, 2024
Picoult (Wish You Were Here) offers a stimulating if muddled parallel narrative of two women writers, each of whose work is credited to a man. In 1582, poet Emilia Bassano becomes consort to Lord Hunsdon, Queen Elizabeth’s Lord Chamberlain. At the time, women were forbidden to have anything to do with the theater, but when Emilia crosses paths with William Shakespeare, he’s impressed with her work and agrees to pay for the sonnets and plays she’s secretly written if he can take credit for them. Thus begins a working relationship that spans decades. In the present day, Emilia’s descendant Melina Green writes a play about Emilia and Shakespeare, but fears she won’t be able to get it produced after being told that people only relate to plays by men. Unbeknownst to Melina, her roommate, Andre, submits the play to a fringe festival under the pseudonym Mel Green, leading the artistic director to assume the writer is a man. After the play is accepted, Andre poses as Mel during the production, with Melina pretending to be his assistant. The Elizabethan sections, which follow Emilia through an unhappy marriage as the work she wrote for Shakespeare receives acclaim, are the strongest. In comparison, Picoult’s depictions of racism and sexism in the contemporary theater world are a bit simplistic. It’s a mixed bag. Agent: Laura Gross, Laura Gross Literary.

December 6, 2024

Melina Green is writing a play about her ancestor Emilia Bassano. In the 1580s, Emilia was raised and schooled by English aristocrats. At age 13, she is forced to become mistress to the Lord Chamberlain. She writes plays and poetry, but, as a woman, she cannot get her writing published. Instead, she collaborates with William Shakespeare, an aspiring writer who lacks talent; he buys her plays and poems, takes credit for them, and rises to fame. Emilia finally finds a publisher for her poetry and becomes the first woman to be published. Or is she? In the present day, Melina's male friend submits her play to a contest, and Melina convinces him to temporarily take credit for writing the drama. That fiction takes on a life of its own until the truth is revealed. The storyline alternates between Melina and Emilia, who encounter parallel problems while striving for recognition, underlining the long struggle for equality in a male-dominated world. Unfortunately, Picoult's novel, which is accompanied by an author's note on her inspiration and research process, is over-long, can be repetitive, and lacks the surprise ending that tends to characterize her novel. Still, the full cast expertly breathes life into the tale. VERDICT Despite the issues mentioned, this is still a story worth hearing.--Joanna M. Burkhardt

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