Dame Dobson

About the show

Dame Dobson; or, The Cunning Woman (1683) is a satirical play featuring a fraudulent "cunning woman" who runs a deceptive business, using tricks and illusions to fool desperate clients from various social classes. The plot follows her comedic interactions with customers, including those seeking physical invulnerability, the death of a spouse, physical enhancement, or a gender transformation, all of which she handles through staged, farcical enchantments. The Vulnerable Citizen: A young man approaches her seeking a magical charm that will make him entirely invulnerable to physical harm. The Scheming Wife: A lady requests a prophecy predicting exactly when her husband will die so that she can freely marry a handsome colonel. The Vain Country Girl: A young country girl visits the Dame wishing for a spell to enlarge her breasts. The Eccentric Welshwoman: A Welsh country woman demands to be transformed into a man so she can enjoy more freedom and successfully woo a wealthy lady. The play exposes human gullibility and greed in 17th-century London through these episodes, highlighted by the Dame’s use of a fake, rigged version of Friar Bacon's Brazen Head to deliver false prophecies. This farcical, episodic structure highlights the booming market for fraudulent spiritualism.