Life Without Instruction is based on a true story and a real trial. Artemesia Gentileschi’s father, the late-Renaissance painter Orazio Gentileschi, takes the unusual step of having his daughter trained in the art of painting under the instruction of his friend, Agostino Tassi. Tassi rapes Artemesia, and is taken to trial by both Artemesia and Orazio. As usual, the person really on trial in this rape case is the woman, who is publically humiliated and forced to endure the torture of thumb screws. Yet through this ordeal Artemesia not only emerges as a strong and independent woman: She comes into her own as a talented painter. Finally defying the manipulations of the men who had taken it upon themselves to orchestrate her life for her, Artemesia defiantly says to one of them—her father—“I’m not your little girl, anymore. I’m something else. Something truly unspeakable. An artist!” Sally Clark describes Life Without Instruction as “a revenge play.”
Cast of three women and five men.

Sally Clark
Born in Vancouver, Sally Clark is a critically acclaimed playwright who has been dazzling audiences with her penchant for dark humour, ironic wit, and sharp character portrayals. Her plays, typically presented in a series of short, vivid, and fast-paced scenes, seamlessly combine comedic and tragic motifs to tell the stories of strong and adventurous women. In Saint Frances of Hollywood and Life without Instruction, she demonstrates her knack for dramatizing the lives of historical figures, providing a feminist re-visioning of what it means and what it costs to be a heroine. Clark has been playwright-in-residence at Theatre Passe Muraille, the Shaw Festival, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Nakai Theatre, and Nightwood Theatre. She is also an accomplished painter, director, and filmmaker. When she was a resident artist at the Canadian Film Centre, she wrote and directed her award-winning short film Ten Ways to Abuse an Old Woman.

Clark moved to Toronto in 1974 but returned to Vancouver in 1994 and has been residing there since. For more information on the work and career of Sally Clark, visit her website.

Sally Clark's profile page

“Sally Clark’s great talents as a playwright are her seemingly effortless ability to shift from light to dark and her finely tuned understanding of life’s rich ambiguties.”
— Toronto Star