Aristotle’s Wife

A collection of plays that spotlights women whose professions are pitted against their gender.

Each play in this collection explores an imagined moment in the life of a little-known scientist sidelined by gender. Six brilliant women--Pythias of Assos, Susanna Lister, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Lise Meitner, Esther Lederberg, and Barbara McClintock--vibrantly inhabit these pages (and stages) at points where their personal and professional selves intersect. These plays can be performed together as an evening of theater for smart audiences.

Claudia Barnett writes plays about women, history, and science. Her recent projects include Theodosia Redux and her collaboration with Pipeline-Collective, Outside of Here, a twelve-hour play that premiered as a live broadcast event featuring three dozen performers. She is professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University. Her previous books include I Love You Terribly: Six Plays; No. 731 Degraw-street, Brooklyn, or Emily Dickinson’s Sister: A Play in Two Acts; and Witches Vanish.