“My foremost pleasure is to be waited on, admired and adored.
This is my weakness and that of almost all women.”

Carlo Goldini’s The Hostess Of The Inn centres on beautiful and shrewd Mirandolina, who runs a popular Florence inn and is juggling three suitors – an impoverished marquess, a nouveau-riche count, and the faithful servant her dying father selected to be her husband. When the Knight of Ripafratta – a sworn misogynist – comes to stay at her inn, she takes up the challenge to teach him a lesson. However, what starts as a practical joke spirals out of her control, leaving Mirandolina with only one option to save herself and her honour…

First performed in Venice in 1752, The Hostess Of The Inn (La Locandiera) was one of the first stage portrayals of a modern woman who, shrewd and independent, remains in charge of her own fate.

The Hostess Of The Inn is specially commissioned by Giant Olive to celebrate the company’s official launch as company-in-residence at the Lion & Unicorn.