The Belle’s Stratagem
Ashland, Oregon at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival The Belle’s Stratagem by Hannah Cowley This OSF season is sorely testing my claim to like only death, destruction, and tragedy on the stage. First The Philander and now The Belle’s Stratagem have forced me to leave the theater grinning happily at the feel-good, happy-ending entertainment. I can salvage my self respect only by mentioning that in both cases the plays were instructive of how old our “modern” ideas of women’s equality and liberal mores are. Belle’s Stratagem was written in 1780 and is centered on two plots: in the title story a woman figures [...]