Welcome to the home page of A COMEDY OF MARRIAGE!
This is the third and final installment of the adventures of Tory Lightfoot and Jack Dance, begun in The Witch From the Sea, and continued in Runaways: A Novel of Jonkanoo.
Against a backdrop of theatrical life in Britain in the age of Edmund
Kean, a motley collective of strolling players grapple with issues of
social, racial, sexual and marital equality within the looking glass of
life imitating art imitating life that is the theater, where the
ever-relevant words of Shakespeare provide both mirror and compass.
Victoria Lightfoot, a mixed-blood runaway orphan from the wilds of America, will do anything to preserve her freedom—from both the stifling rules of polite society that view women as the property of their husbands and people of color as inferior, and from the dangerous secrets of her past life on the high seas with the man she loves, acrobat and failed actor, Jack Dance. In the cold winter of 1826, she and Jack flee the West Indies to return to his native England with their friend and partner, former slave and abolitionist Alphonse Belair, in hopes of forging a new life for themselves on the stage.
When the three of them are taken into a troupe of strolling provincial players under the pretext that Tory and Jack are siblings, they must deny the passion for each other that would be forbidden to a brother and sister. It takes all of their acting skills to conceal the true nature of their relationship from their new colleagues, in particular inquisitive actress Jenny Kennett, runaway wife from an abusive husband, and handsome, sardonic young actor, Christopher Bell, who makes no apologies for his own dangerously "criminal" sexual preferences.
To his horror, Jack is voted in to manage the company. But evil forces worthy of melodrama are allied against them: a disgruntled fellow player with a grudge against Jack; Jenny's controlling husband, who means to punish her defiance by breaking her spirit and ruining them all; and an unwelcome ghost from Jack and Tory's outlaw past. They are like the comic villains in a pantomime farce—but the last act may be a tragedy when Tory must risk her own freedom, possibly losing Jack forever, in order to save his life.
To begin the adventure, scroll down to the bottom of the Blog Archive, click on Coming Soon, and follow the story upwards through each installment. At the end of each chapter, click on Newer Posts to read the next one.
Meanwhile, check out the menu pages above for more information on Tory's backstory, the genesis of this project, the historical background of the post-Regency, pre-Victorian era, and a glossary of colorful period slang, theatrical and otherwise!
Enjoy the show!
Lisa Jensen, Santa Cruz, California, 2023
Visit the bygone world of A Comedy of Marriage in pictures on my Pinterest page!
Above: Isaac Cruikshank, King John’s First Appearance at the New Theatre, Covent Garden, 1809
