You on the Moors Now

NORTHAMPTON, MA — The Smith College Department of Theatre presents You on the Moors Now by Jaclyn Backhaus on February 28, 29, and March 1, 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hallie Flanagan Studio Theatre. In the play, directed by Monica Lopez Orozco, a group of four literary heroines of the nineteenth century join forces to set conventionalism ablaze when they turn down marriage proposals from their equally famous gentleman callers. Everything you’ve learned about love from the pages of Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Little Women is turned upside down in this grand theatrical battle royale of the sexes. Tickets range from $5-10 at smitharts.booktix.com. Free for Smith students.

Backhaus riffs on the classic novels by Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, and Anne and Charlotte Bronte. What results is an often funny confluence of love, anger, and defiance as the ensemble struggles to reconcile the romantic ideologies of the past with their modern ideas of courtship. “The play subverts the classic stories and contemporizes the characters’ experiences,” explains Lopez Orozco. “I love the way Jaclyn Backhaus makes these books more accessible—the writing is quick, sharp, and witty.” She notes that Backhaus has written the male characters over the top for comic effect and social critique. “We are definitely having fun lampooning male fragility around romantic rejection. In this play, the women have the upper hand.”

Jaclyn Backhaus is an award-winning New York-based playwright, screenwriter and educator from Phoenix, Arizona. Her work in theater and film centers the multigenerational impact of South Asian diasporic immigration to America, and many of her works examine the intersection of underrepresented people and known historical timelines. The theatre department produced her play Men on Boats in 2018. When writing You On The Moors Now, Backhaus wanted the play to be more than a mashup of the 19th-century texts, but “a portal where all of these characters could find themselves”. You on the Moors Now premiered at HERE Arts in 2015 in New York City. New City Stage praised the play as a “witty slice of meta-fiction and a loving tribute to the foundation of feminist literature and activism”.

You on the Moors features a cast of 13—4 heroines, 4 suitors, and 5 ensemble players who perform multiple supporting characters from the novels. To highlight the clash of ideas and ideals, the play is staged in the round with a team of student designers creating the metaphorical “moors” of the title:  sets by Isabel Kurzweil ’26, costumes by Tyler Swartz ’25, Lighting by Larissa Savitsky ’25J, and sound by Maisy Hoffman ’25. “The play is about rejecting societal, patriarchal systems and examining the historically controversial concept of female self-determination.” Lopez Orozco says. “Why is it radical and how much has (or hasn’t) changed since these books were written?”  For tickets, full details, and content warnings please visit smitharts.booktix.com.