Upstart!

Upstart! explores the family life of William Shakespeare from the perspective of his daughter Judith. An insight into the real life of the world’s most celebrated playwright, it probes the sacrifices that artists make to bring their work to fruition, as well as the somewhat less celebrated adulteries of the hero-worshipped Bard. While her father is theatre-making at The Globe in London, Judith battles with what it means to be a Jacobean woman in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Judith battled her whole life with having lost her twin brother in early life, growing up like she was half of something and couldn’t ever be enough for her parents, who would never truly recover from the loss of their son. But Judith Shakespeare is a chip off her father’s block. Desperate to be closer to him, she decides to do something about it. Emulating the adventures of her father’s dramatic heroines, Judith decides to take on the guise of a man and journeys herself to London to find her father. When she does find him, he’s where he belongs, in the Playhouse – but caught embroiled in an illicit affair with his mistress, the infamous focus of The Dark Lady sonnets. In reaction to her father following his heart, Judith decides that she will follow hers, marrying Tom Quiney – the wrong man, cutting her ties with her family and ultimately destroying her life.