2025 production of the award-winning play by Chiara Atik at Richmond's Orange Tree Theatre. The "hilarious and off-beat comedy" starred Freddy Carter as St. Francis, the male lead. He starred opposite Bridgerton's Arsema Thomas who played St. Clare.
The play is set in Assisi, Italy in medieval times and is inspired by the stories of St. Clare and St. Francis of Assisi. The story unfolds with Clare, a rich noblewoman, living a life of luxury in Assisi, hanging out with her friends and preparing to marry some super-rich nobleman with whom she will live happily ever after. However when she meets Francis on the streets of Assisi, who’s sharing some of the wildest ideas Clare has ever heard, her eyes are opened to a whole new way of living.
Directed by Blanche McIntyre.
'Poor Clare' won the 2022 American Theatre Critics Association’s New Play Award and the LA Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Play. The play was also a finalist in the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the oldest and largest international playwriting prize honouring women.