The Hive’s “Bull in a China Shop” Brings a Modern Vibe to a Historical Story

This month, the St. Paul–based Hive Collaborative has partnered with Fortune’s Fool Theatre to stage Bull in a China Shop, a historical drama telling the true story of Mary Woolley and Jeannette Marks, a lesbian couple who dedicated themselves to the cause of first-wave feminism in the early 20th century. The play, written by contemporary queer playwright Bryna Turner and directed by Shanan Custer, features an all-female cast and a story centering both the often-uneasy life partnership between Woolley and Marks and the political context of the era. It focuses on their involvement with Mount Holyoke College and the way the two women’s views on suffrage and their own place in society differed from the mainstream and from each other.

Victoria Pyon as Mary Woolley (left), Ariel Pinkerton as Jeannette Marks (center), and Kyra Richardson as Pearl (right) in Bull in a China Shop. The Hive Collaborative

I had read one of Bryna Turner’s other plays in college—At the Wedding, another endless well of angsty lesbian dramedy—and Turner definitely has a style. Going into this show, I was aware that Jeannette Marks had been Mary Woolley’s student before they were a couple (and that there was a 12-year age difference between them), but something I picked up on quickly was how much younger Marks is written compared to her partner. While actors Victoria Pyan and Ariel Pinkerton appear to be similar in age, the way Pinkerton plays Marks and the way her dialogue and personality are written as fickle, moody, and impulsive clearly designate her as being a lot younger. For example, at one point Marks barges into a meeting between Woolley (at this point president of Mount Holyoke) and the college dean, loudly announcing “I’m going to kill myself!” over (if I’m remembering correctly) frustration about her new teaching job not living up to her expectations.

With that being said, Marks’s insecurities of being left behind by her partner are founded at points. Woolley promises her a house on campus, but in the meantime, Marks spends years living in depressing faculty housing with the other teachers. Later, Woolley goes for an extended vacation in China, leaving Marks alone at the school for months; Marks eventually seeks companionship by taking advantage of one of her students.

Jeannette Marks as a young woman.

I had previously seen Victoria Pyon in the role of a similarly headstrong female academic, scientist Mary Somerville, in Nimbus Theatre’s Ada Lovelace, Bride of Science. Bull in a China Shop is titled after the way Woolley sees herself—as a disruptor, an agitator—but the narrative also doesn’t shy away from criticizing her sometimes wishy-washy attitude toward women’s rights. She enjoyed her position as president of Mount Holyoke College and was at points inclined, in Bryna Turner’s words, to “leave behind” other women if it meant preserving her power. She was reluctant to openly support suffrage, which caused tension in her personal and professional life. In the show, this comes to a head when a group of Holyoke faculty and students are arrested at a suffrage rally. Woolley pays her students’ bail and sends them back to school, but she refuses to help Marks and the other teachers. She eventually relents and becomes a staunch advocate for the advancement of all women, but her hesitation underlines her prideful obstinance, a personality trait that no doubt served her in standing up to men in power but, at least as it’s depicted in Turner’s play, was a double-edged sword when it came to her relationships to other women and to her own womanhood.

With the small cast, the weakest point of the play is the lack of broader cultural perspective. Partly because there aren’t any male characters, you don’t fully get an idea of what it was like living as a progressive woman in the early 1900s. The narrow scope and complete absence of the male perspective seem to have been Turner’s intention, and I had the historical context to understand which aspects were purposefully anachronistic, but this wouldn’t be the right play to go into hoping to learn something about the way female professionals and activists lived more generally at that time.

There is also the question of language. While the events of Bull in a China Shop take place between 1899 and 1937, the dialogue has been modernized to include present-day terms and a constant deluge of f-bombs. This works in some moments to help the audience better connect with the story and characters, but at other points (as with the use of “fan fiction”), it cheapens the historical aspect for me.

Mary Woolley during her presidency at Mount Holyoke College.

The interesting historical aspect of Woolley and Marks’s relationship, according to Bull in a China Shop, is the fact that it was relatively public, by the standards of the early 20th century. This is highlighted in the line “It hasn’t exactly gone unobserved, Madam President, that you climb three flights of stairs every night to kiss Professor Marks goodnight,” a piece of dialogue that features heavily in the show’s marketing. In addition, Woolley and Marks are revealed to have fangirls on the campus of Mount Holyoke College, who devote themselves to upholding the sanctity of the women’s relationship.

My favorite performance by far is that of Kyra Richardson. A Hamline University alum, Richardson has credits that include Heathers: The Musical and the Children’s Theatre Company’s 2025 production of Frozen. Here, she plays Pearl, a student who becomes obsessed with Jeannette Marks. Pearl is youthful, energetic, and innocent in her infatuation with her teacher. She writes bad poetry and is a member of the Woolley/Marks fan club. Marks initially rejects Pearl but eventually does sleep with her, ostensibly to get back at Woolley for abandoning her. After Woolley finds out, Marks reminds her that their relationship started with a very similar dynamic. In that way, Pearl’s role explores the repetition of toxic cycles. From her initial crush to attempting to justify why an affair with her teacher is remotely okay, Richardson’s performance (in tandem with Ariel Pinkerton’s portrayal of Marks at various ages) captures this theme really effectively.

Bull in a China Shop provides a fascinating character study on power and the personal cost of progress. While it has some distracting anachronisms and thematic gaps, the actors and Shanan Custer’s direction carry the show.

Bull in a China Shop is onstage at the Hive Collaborative in St. Paul through September 27, 2026. Tickets are free, but donations are appreciated and audience members are encouraged to book ahead to ensure availability, since the theater is very small. The play runs around 90 minutes with no intermission. You can find more information and make reservations on the Hive website.