Ashayla Calvin, Kristin Collins, and Annie Hogan Photo by Joe Mazza, Brave Lux Photography

Set in Ireland in 1850, the play brings together would-be Irish philanthropists, an English abolitionist, and the woman he has "freed" from slavery in the South. Hannah Tewkley, a devout Quaker, finds herself nearly a decade and a half into a marriage she entered into with the goal of alleviating the anxieties of her dying father with regard to those he would leave behind. Although her husband Samuel expresses doubts regarding Hannah's charity work, he is willing, at least to some extent, to fund these efforts with the resources he commands as a somewhat reluctant heir to a prosperous tea, coffee, and sugar company.

Although Hannah has invested her efforts in relief of the poor and sick in the seedier areas of their own locale, particularly women afflicted by syphilis as a consequence of having been forced into sex work, she seems dissatisfied with the limited good she can do. When she suggests that she and Samuel open the unused spaces within their mansion, including a pointedly empty nursery, to an abolitionist lecturer and the man she travels with, Samuel is reluctant, but eventually agrees. What unfolds after Sarah Worth and Alfred Darby, her English "emancipator," arrive is an admirably complex, if somewhat uneven and awkwardly paced exploration of issues of class, gender, art, power, and morality.

The intimate space at Theater Wit presents challenges that Hagan, who serves as the scenic designer as well as the director, meets effectively, overall. The audience surrounds a long, narrow gallery stage that juts out at its midpoint to represent the showroom for Samuel's family company on one side and the bare, simple pulpit from which Sarah delivers her lectures on the other. At the other extremes of the stage are the rooms of Martha, one of Hannah's charity cases, and the guest quarters within the spacious, but pointedly austere, confines of the Tewkleys' mansion.

Rachel Lambert's costumes work well with the simplicity of the scenic design, conveying the tensions between the Tewkleys' faith and the class-based image they maintain; particularly of note is Lambert's design for Darby, whose striped trousers and comparatively colorful jacket, together with a wild hairstyle, lend the character an unsettling vibe of showmanship.

With no wing space or backstage area available in this set up, Hagan seats the four primary characters among the audience for much of the show, and Martha is often visible in the bed within her spare and squalid quarters. This keeps the various experiences of suffering top of mind for the audience, in addition to deftly conveying (often with important support from Ellie Fey's excellent lighting design) both the characters' alienation and isolation, as well as how entangled their stories are.

The sound in the space is sometimes challenging, given that the actors are necessarily distant from a portion of the audience, but Hagan's blocking and the direction of attention via lighting help to alleviate these difficulties. Petter Wahlbäck's subtle sound design also responds to these challenges effectively, particularly providing a soundscape that underlies Sarah's lectures, which become more and more harrowing as the play progresses.

Kuti has filled the play with complex characters whose lived experiences feel real, courtesy of the cast's excellent performances. Annie Hogan's work as Hannah Tewkley capitalizes on the richness of Kuti's writing. Hannah strives toward the good and spiritual fulfillment in her marriage and in her philanthropic work, yet the sheltered life she has led leaves her with an overly simplistic and naive perspective on the world's ills and what "good" actually means for those without her privilege.

Hogan and Todd Wojcik (Samuel Tewkley) do excellent work together in depicting the Tewkleys' marriage as something far from any stereotypes regarding gender, faith, or time period. Like Hannah, Samuel is a true, lived-in character whose desires are a blend of the base and the spiritual. Wojcik's nuanced performance treads the line between these beautifully, particularly in a thorny scene where Samuel peruses Darby's daguerreotypes. These images of the violence of slavery blend documentation with Darby's "artistic input." Wojcik subtly and fearlessly conveys the complicated nature of Samuel's fascination with the subjects.

John LaFlamboy's performance as Darby is, appropriately, larger than that of either Hogan or Wojcik, but no less effective. Kuti gives the audience less access to Darby's inner life, particularly in the beginning of the play, and the character is revealed largely through the words of Sarah and Hannah, as well as the conversations Samuel draws Darby into. But these revelations could easily fall flat or read as unbelievable without LaFlamboy's performance.

Like Darby, the character of Sarah Worth is written as a slow burn. Ashayla Calvin's performance, at first, seems almost stilted. However, Calvin earns the patience of the audience as she allows Sarah to unfold at a pace that is not just believable in retrospect, but clearly calculated to require the audience to reckon with the experiences that have created such self-protective reserve in this woman. Calvin pairs this with sharp wit and ferocious courage as her lectures, as well as her interactions with Hannah, build to a powerful peak.

Kristin Collins makes important contributions to the show's success in the supporting role of Martha Ryan. Although Martha's primary function is to shed light on the motivations and beneath-the-surface tendencies of Hannah, Darby, and Sarah, Collins imparts depth that prevents the character from simply being a plot device that would detract from the play's admirable complexity.

The Artistic Home's The Sugar Wife runs through May 3, 2026, at Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont, Chicago IL. For tickets, please visit www.theaterwit.org.