How playwright Kat Sandler found a Wildwoman (three, actually) beneath a Disney fairytale

Toronto-based Kat Sandler is currently wowing audiences with the much-anticipated Soulpepper Theatre debut of her newest play Wildwoman, which she also directs.Wildwoman began as part of Soulpepper’s Six Women Writing commissioning program in 2020, and is the opener for the ambitious Her Words Festival. Based on the true story that inspired the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, the play explores the lives of three women in the court of France’s King Henry II: Kitty, a wench-turned-courtier’s wife; Lady Diane de Poitiers, King Henry’s much-older mistress; and Catherine de Medici, the Queen. In and around the fairy tale fundamentals, these three women navigate the gendered challenges of survival in 16th-century France, offering a fresh and topical female interpretation. 

A prolific writer and director, Sandler is a familiar name to audiences through acclaimed works such as Yaga (Tarragon Theatre), The Party / The Candidate (Citadel Theatre), BANG BANG (Factory Theatre), and the critically acclaimed Mustard (Tarragon Theatre), for which she earned the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play. And Sandler’s creative reach extends beyond the stage to television, film, and podcasts, including The Artists (Factory Theatre), Blue Rare (PlayMe/CBC), and How to Build A Fire (Koffler Centre for the Arts), which was named the 2018 Best Fiction Podcast at the Austin Film Festival.

Sandler found inspiration for Wildwoman in a surprisingly obvious place: her love of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. She admits to being “obsessed with taking fairy tales, legends, or history, and coming at them from the female villain perspective”. At the same time, she is “so aware that there are darker versions of those fairy tales, and . . . much more interested in exploring the darkness”.  And that exploration turned in the direction of Wildwoman when mindless Internet research revealed the story of Pedro Gonzalez, which proved once again “how real-life history really is stranger than fiction”.

Gonzalez was a man afflicted with hypertrichosis (Latin for too much hair) who lived during King Henry’s reign. “He was alive in the sixteenth century, at a time when giants, little people, and others who differed physically from the norm were viewed as curiosities to be traded and collected as status symbols between the wealthy.” Considered a “wild man” – of a race of “half-men, half-animal creatures, covered in hair who become ferocious at night, even stealing and eating children alive” – Pedro was  presented as a gift to King Henry II.  As an experiment, he was given a latin name (Petrus Gonsalvus), an education and a position at court, and then married off to Queen Catherine de Medici’s most beautiful lady-in-waiting – just to see what sort of “furry children” the union might produce. The couple bore seven children, who were bought and traded by nobles like collectibles. 

As Sandler explains, “It’s said that this true story was the original inspiration for Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s original 1740 story Beauty and the Beast.” However, the wild man star kept getting obscured by the three women who also inhabited this narrative, so “their fascinating lives and stories (all true!) became the basis for our play.” 

Catherine de Medici is conventionally viewed as an evil, Machiavellian schemer who murdered thousands of Protestants at the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of 1572, and resorted to witchcraft and murder in her desperate attempts to provide the kingdom with an heir.  Needless to say, Wildwoman offers an alternative perspective. In explaining the play’s title, Sandler notes that, yes, “Pete is the ‘Beast,’ but really, all of the women in this play (Catherine, Kitty, and Diane de Poitiers) would have been considered ‘wild’ in different ways at that time”. The reason? They were each fighting tenaciously for power, legacy and their very lives in a time when a woman’s worth was measured entirely by her dowry, her wifely subservience, and her ability to bear children.” 

The play is irreverent, wickedly funny, and propulsively plotted. And this crowd-pleaser also packs a thematic punch: Sandler expects that the play is resonating with diverse audiences because it tackles directly our notions of class, politics, religion, love, marriage, motherhood, freedom, power, and how to treat those who are different. “It’s good to be reminded that we still have work to do as a society,” she remarks, noting that “it’s been half a millennium since these true events, but in the aftermath of #metoo and the overturning of Roe v. Wade – in an age where women are so tantalizingly close to ultimate power (just one weak presidential heartbeat away), but also constantly attacked for daring to want more – it’s clear that almost 500 years later, we still have a long way to go.” 

Presenting the play as the opening work of Soulpepper’s Her Words Festival has been “an absolute dream,” Sandler beams, grateful for feeling “so supported and buoyed by Weyni [Mengesha, Artistic Director] and all the other badass women at Soulepper and in the festival, like the amazing Sandra Caldwell”, star and writer of the upcoming The Guide to Being Fabulous: “I think it’s so interesting how different all our work is, but also how similar – we’re all playing with stories and themes like identity, sex and power – top-of-mind issues for women in 2023.”  And Sandler stresses the special importance of representing women over the age of thirty as sexual and powerful on stage, and telling stories of women and mothers from all age groups. 

The playwright and director is positively effusive when discussing the acclaimed cast of Wildwoman, noting that “in my opinion, they’re ALL stellar, brilliant, and wild . . . but in different ways.”  Rosemary Dunsmore, who plays mistress Lady Diane de Poitiers is “a fearless veteran of the Canadian stage and screen who fearlessly dives into every moment, testing its boundaries”.  Gabriella Sundar Singh (Kitty) “approaches the text and physicality with a kind of fierce and practised abandon”, and delivers “unconventional, weird, and wonderful takes on moments.”  Sandler also credits Dan Mousseau (Pete) for infusing the production with playfulness and mischief. “Mousseau’s charm allows him to push the boundaries, adding a unique flavor to the play.” Meanwhile, Tony Orfori (Henry II) is a “character delver” who surprises by turning moments on their heads, even while his deep understanding of character adds depth to the production. Plus, “he’s just the kindest,” she adds. And finally Rose Napoli (Catherine de Medici) is, in Sandler’s words, a “BEAST of a performer” who is capable of summoning “such power and emotion in an instant. It’s terrifying and stunning to watch. I can’t wait for people to see her in this role.” 

If you’re curious about Sandler’s favourite moment in Wildwoman, you’ll need to wait until the play’s final moment. “Wildly complicated and technically ambitious,” the scene which is the culmination of Catherine’s story will sear itself into your memory. “The play spans over forty years, so you’ve watched her struggle for power and change, and grow and learn and fail. Now you get to see if she gets what she wants . . . and also what it might cost her.”  

The answer, Sandler hopes, “will mean different things to different people”, and demonstrate that “it’s never as simple as ‘they all lived happily ever after’”.

Wildwoman runs until October 29, 2023 at Soulpepper. Visit soulpepper.ca for audience advisory and to reserve tickets.

© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2023