Belle Esprit changes theater history to herstory once again with ‘Lady Susan’

Claire F. Martin puts the work of women writers on stage.

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When the present and future are uncertain, we look to the past — to those who blazed trails before us. Belle Esprit, a burgeoning theater company spearheaded by writer and director Claire F. Martin, gives a voice to those trailblazers by creating theater based on women writers from centuries past. 

Readers may recognize Belle Esprit as the company co-producing the Shakespeare Tavern’s current adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, running through June 1. Their production of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility also ran at the Tavern last year, and a reading of Lady Susan, adapted from the Austen novella of the same name, will take the stage May 25.

Like the bulk of Belle Esprit’s work, these adaptations are all penned and directed by Martin, who started the company in 2023. Fueled by her education in feminist theory as well as 18^th and 19^th century theater history, Martin’s goal is to produce “historically located pieces of work, whether fictional or based on true events, that make the women, femme or nonbinary people going to see them today feel like there is legacy, heritage and eons of love and support behind them.”

Naturally, most of these productions are adaptations, which Martin sees as an opportunity to highlight the scores of women who wrote in times when their words were not considered welcome. The name Belle Esprit even references this mission — a French term that literally translates to “lively spirit.” The phrase was used in the 18^th and 19^th centuries to refer to ladies who were considered the life of the party or the belles of the ball. The more subtle usage, however, was to refer to women who were suspected to be secretly publishing.

Belle Esprit’s inaugural production was in April 2023, when Martin’s adaptation of Charlotte Lennox’s 1752 novel The Female Quixote, titled Arabella, received a four-performance run on the Tavern’s Porpentine Stage. Admitting herself to be a very loose adapter, Martin takes these works and re-centers the female perspective in ways that the original authors may not have felt was possible or realistic. 

Regarding her adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, where the relationship between Elizabeth Bennet and her sister, Lydia, is far more prevalent, Martin defends the need to make the story matter not just in a theatrical context but in a 2025 context. 

“I have not met that many women who have met their Mr. Darcy because most Mr. Darcys are walking red flags,” Martin says. “But I have certainly met a lot of young women who have had gross, creepy older men hit on them and then been told by the world that it was their fault.”

Shakespeare Tavern’s Porpentine Stage — the same stage that hosted Belle Esprit’s first production — will host the reading of Lady Susan. One of Austen’s earliest works and unpublished until after her death, Lady Susan follows the figure of a widow and social outcast, whom Martin describes as a “charming, incredibly charismatic, narcissistic, lipstick feminist,” and her beleaguered daughter Frederica, who comes into her own over the course of the story.

The reading will once again feature direction by Martin, with Amanda Lindsay McDonald appearing as Susan and Alejandra Ruiz as Frederica. McDonald and Ruiz are cast in Pride and Prejudice as well. 

Lady Susan, in particular, speaks to Martin’s desire to showcase a variety of female personalities. “I am so cosmically over the idea of the ‘strong female character,’” she says. “All women are strong because we have souls, and we live in a patriarchy. A strong woman is not an exception. All of us are strong, all of us are cool, all of us are smart, all of us are interesting and it’s the diversity of our coolness that has allowed us to endure for all of these years.”

Martin voices her admiration for other companies spotlighting women’s stories — such as Synchronicity Theatre and The Weird Sisters Theatre Project — but she feels that Belle Esprit’s focus on feminist history distinguishes them within the Atlanta theater scene — looking not toward the future but toward the past. 

“I feel deeply committed to using the past as a fertile exploration ground, as a playground of sorts, by which women can hopefully find some empowerment.”

Where & When

A reading of Lady Susan takes the Porpentine Stage at the Shakespeare Tavern on May 25. Tickets, $15.
499 Peachtree St. NE.

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Luke Evans is an Atlanta-based writer, critic and dramaturg. He covers theater for ArtsATL and Broadway World Atlanta and has worked with theaters such as the Alliance, Actor’s Express, Out Front Theatre and Woodstock Arts. He’s a graduate of Oglethorpe University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, and the University of Houston, where he earned his master’s.