Gentleman Anne: LGBT+ Play Challenges Literary Canons at Milan's Teatro Elfo Puccini

The play 'Gentleman Anne', directed by Elena Russo Arman and co-starring Maria Caggianelli Villani, premiered nationally at the 2021 Lecite/Visioni festival and was subsequently produced by Teatro Elfo Puccini in Milan. Adapted from Magdalena Barile's feminist play, it juxtaposes a contemporary scene—where a graduate student named Jo negotiates her thesis with her English Literature advisor—with an early 19th-century setting following Anne Lister. Lister, a writer, entrepreneur, and adventurer, was disparagingly nicknamed 'Gentleman Jack' for her love of women. Her 27-volume coded diaries, discovered after her death by John Lister at Shibden Hall (now a museum), were inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2011. She is recognized as an LGBT+ icon and pioneer, with her relationship with heiress Ann Walker considered the first lesbian marriage in Western history. Lister was also the first woman to climb Monte Perdido and Vignemale. The play explores power dynamics in same-sex relationships, paralleling Lister's exploitation of Ann Walker with the professor's manipulation of Jo. Featuring Bach's cello suites, the 75-minute performance runs until February 20, 2022.