An Invented Truth - A Q&A with Playwright Barbara Blatner on Jane, Queen’s Foole

Oct 28, 2026

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A playwright Barbara Blatner discusses Jane, Queen’s Foole, a verse-driven drama imagining the inner life of Jane Foole, the only historically recorded female court jester in Tudor England. The interview covers her creative spark, including Jane’s use of language to survive and the parallels between Jane and Queen Mary Tudor. Topics include contemporary resonance around gender, disability, identity, and power, alongside research, dramaturgical development, and the upcoming staged reading.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time6 min

AccessFree to download

Interview

Origins and creative imagination

Writing in verse and language

Portraying vulnerability and power

Relevance to contemporary audiences

Tudor research and court jesters

Development and script refinement

Urgent themes

Dream staging and audience experience

An Invented Truth: A Q&A with Playwright Barbara Blatner on Jane, Queen’s Foole Tally Daniels Follow Playwright Barbara Blatner Barbara Blatner’s lyrical and daring new play, Jane, Queen’s Foole, imagines the inner life of Jane Foole, the only historically recorded female court jester in Tudor England. With poetic language and deep emotional undercurrents, the play explores Jane’s evolving relationship with Queen Mary Tudor as both women navigate trauma, power, and womanhood within the perilous confines of the royal court. The play was selected as one of this year’s winners of Broad Horizons Theatre Company’s New Voices, New Plays, New York competition—an initiative spotlighting bold new works set in the Elizabethan era. Directed by Jan Powell and developed through the Broad Horizons New Works Series, Jane, Queen’s Foole will receive a staged reading this June from Broad Horizons, a non-profit company devoted to fostering diverse voices and dynamic new theatrical storytelling. Medium: What initially sparked your interest in Jane Foole, and how did she evolve in your imagination? Barbara Blatner: For a long time, I wanted to write a play about a Fool or jester and their relationship with a monarch. I love Shakespeare’s Fools—who doesn’t? Their rhymes, riddles, vulnerability, and coded wisdom always struck me. I was intrigued by how a Fool can challenge power without punishment and where that line gets drawn. While researching jesters online, I stumbled upon Jane Foole—an actual female Fool! There’s so little known about her, which gave me creative freedom to imagine her life. I had to ask: How was she disabled? What happened to her spirit as a child? How does she use language to survive? Pairing her with Mary Tudor—another often-overlooked figure—felt like a powerful dramatic match. Both women are “in two,” both wounded by fathers, and both craving agency. Jane’s voice—and her vision—soon took over. Medium: Why did you choose to write the play in verse, and how does the language shape Jane’s world? BB: I began as a poet. Sound, rhythm, and image are home for me. Jane’s fractured mind—born of trauma and gifted with spiritual insight—makes her a natural speaker of verse. She arrives at Mary’s court a starving beggar, compulsively rhyming when agitated—a condition called “clanging” that mimics certain schizophrenic speech patterns. But she refines her language. Words become her power, her protection, her prophecy. Verse lets her speak truth that prose might soften. It’s how she sees, how she survives, how she ultimately breaks. Medium: Jane is a character who defies expectations—how did you balance vulnerability and power in her portrayal? BB: It’s a constant dance. Jane’s power lies in language and vision; Mary’s lies in political authority. Both are deeply wounded—Jane by abuse and abandonment, Mary by paternal rejection and patriarchy. Jane can read the stars but not the rules of court. Her honesty is both endearing and dangerous. She can’t wear the mask others do. That makes her powerful, yes—but exposed. I wanted that paradox to be felt in every scene. Vulnerability is not weakness. It’s a form of courage. Medium:How do you see the play speaking to contemporary audiences, especially regarding gender, disability, and identity? BB: Every character in the play is navigating identity—gendered, spiritual, societal. Jane and Mary are cisgender, but their roles push against expectations. Lucrece is non-binary. Jane and Will both live with disability, but their minds are expansive, brilliant, and often prophetic. I hope today’s audiences see themselves in these layers—how our “wounds” can become sources of power. The play doesn’t romanticize suffering, but it does honor resilience. Medium: What was most surprising or challenging in your research on Tudor England and court jesters? BB: Surprisingly, I found the historical material on Mary Tudor to be quite dry—she felt like a list of deeds, not a person. So

FAQs

What inspired Barbara Blatner to create a play about Jane Foole?

She wanted to write about a fool or jester and a monarch relationship, and she found Jane Foole, an actual female court jester, whose limited historical record offered creative freedom.

Why is the play written in verse, and what does it do for Jane’s character?

Blatner began as a poet, and she uses sound, rhythm, and imagery to match Jane’s fractured mind shaped by trauma and spiritual insight. Verse gives Jane a way to speak truth and transform words into protection and power.

Which themes does Blatner say feel most urgent in Jane, Queen’s Foole?

She highlights abuse of power and how personal wounds shape public choices, plus women’s power and the cost of pursuing agency. She also emphasizes resilience without romanticizing suffering.

Oct 28, 2026

Upload by Noah