Kate Hamill delivers a 'feminist primal scream' with her new play 'The Light and the Dark'

NEW YORK (AP) — The inspiration for Kate Hamill's latest play came from across centuries and the planet.

The actor-playwright was honeymooning in Italy in 2020 when she walked into the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and spotted a painting by pioneering Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi created around 1620. The art immediately stirred more art.

“I was standing in front of this painting, just like crying and shaking for like 20 minutes. And then I was like, ‘I’m going to write a play about this woman,’” she says.

The result is “The Light and the Dark" — a Primary Stages production at 59E59 Theatres — which looks at the hard but inspiring life of Gentileschi, who created bold works despite a society keen on keeping her down. Hamill calls the play a “feminist primal scream.”