The Stolen Chair Theatre Company presents a masked farce in rhyming couplets, freely inspired by the infamous 1612 rape trial of painter Artemisia Gentileschi.
Attempting to free the teenage virtuosa Artemisia from the clutches of her miserly father, the Gentileschis' neighbor Tuzia procures for her a potential husband. She chooses Agostino Tassi, a painter, set designer, and criminal, who would rather screw than woo.
Transforming these complex historical figures into commedia stock characters, Stolen Chair irreverently eviscerates history, hypocrisy, rape, romance, art and artifice.