For their second production as Chester Theatre’s co-artistic directors, Michelle Ong-Hendrick and Christopher Baker have given their audience a remarkable adventure to witness.
Premarital sex was sanctioned and encouraged when two people were engaged to be married so the couple could determine beforehand if the marriage would be fruitful. What the women in the fornication trials were actually being punished for was not the act but failing to marry the man afterward.
The whole community was responsible to feed the hungry, house the homeless, pay damages on behalf of the law-breaker, and answer for the behavior of the sinner.
