‘The Lady Demands Satisfaction’ @ Rover Dramawerks

Photos by Fable Light Photography

—Jan Farrington

“Dash it, they’re all women!” cries a frustrated Lord Abernathy deep into Rover Dramawerks’ regional premiere of The Lady Demands Satisfaction—which (theatrically speaking) is what might happen if you mashed a Molière farce into the frenetic who’s-a-girl-who’s-a-boy plots of Three’s Company or Tootsie.

Contemporary playwright Arthur M. Jolly was in the audience for the opening night—and a game, energetic cast did well with the play’s serpentine story. Director Michael McMillan knows where to find the laughs, but we in the audience earn them by following all the zigs and zags of the script. Toward the end, when an actor shifts into long speeches in a foreign language (no subtitles, but we get the idea) we’re amused—but not a bit surprised.

Rover artistic director Carol M. Rice specializes in producing “lost gems” from the past. Lady differs in that it’s a recently written show by a working writer of our own time—constructed to appear vintage. I was impressed by how well Jolly found the feel of the old style, melding ditzy maidens, clever servants, ferocious aunts, wills with strange stipulations, and an overflow of possible romances—some that need to be ended, others that might be keepers.

The story itself (and I’ll try to keep this brief) involves a recently deceased father who is leaving his estate to his daughter (Trothe, played by Shea McMillan) Dad’s will states she must defend her inheritance with a duel. (This is a very sword-happy household.) Horrified, she contacts her aunt Theodosia (Sherry Etzel)—coincidentally, Europe’s most famous female swordsman / woman / person. Trothe is surrounded by servants: two loyal women working to help her (Andra Laine Hunter as Penelope, Darcy Krokus as Tilly)—and one man (Osric, played by Devin Hite, clearly bad news) who’s chasing her for her inheritance. Toni Arroyo plays a mysterious fellow from the continent, and Alex Eding is Lord Abernathy, who only thinks he’s the Man in Charge around these parts.

Hunter is a standout from start to finish as wise and inventive Penelope, who knows keeping young Trothe on the estate means job security for her and the staff. She seems to genuinely like this Goldie-Hawn-ish young woman, and recruits feisty younger maid Tillly (Krokus), who lets us know early that she grew up with six older brothers. Tilly will come in handy in this battle.

McMillan is eye-rollingly twirly-girly through much of the play, but there are hints she could become more. Right now, she flinches at the idea of fighting for her future life, and has a naive crush on Hite’s slimy Osric (he’s a sort of steward to her late father). Trothe’s flighty 18th-century dress and Osric’s scaly all-black outfit (Alison Kingwell designed costumes) are nicely revealing of character.

Fierce Aunt Theodosia (Etzel) can’t decide if she want to fight the required duel herself, or train Trothe to win it (a long shot). She’s pretty fun as she strides around like Bernhardt or Duse doing a 19th-century “pants” role…and is convincing in her swordplay with various partners. (Annie R. Such is the fight choreographer.) There’s a rumor about the arrival of a Prussian fencing master—but then two of them turn up. Who are these twin hotheads, both spouting some kind of Germanic patter? And though Eding’s Lord Abernathy (he was equally funny in Allen Contemporary’s Sense & Sensibility) tries to sort things out—eventually he seems to stand back and wait for the wild (and pretty clever) outcome.

My only quibble is that this farce runs too long. It’s the fault of our spoiled age, where 90 minutes has become the norm for “how long we’re willing to sit here”—unless (maybe) it’s a Shakespeare. The Lady runs quite a a bit longer than that, and would (in future outings) be the better for a 30-40 minute trim of its intricately plotted script. There’s so much story detail that (hard as it might feel to the writer) a tightening wouldn’t subtract, but perhaps add energy to the proceedings.

Just my opinion, and the audience at opening seemed to enjoy both the story and the engaging performances. Silly stuff, but enough of a crazy pile-up to make it fun.

WHEN: January 15-February 1, 2026
WHERE: Cox Playhouse, 1517 H Avenue, Plano TX
WEB: roverdramawerks.com