Love, lust, prostitution and slavery in a 19th-century Quaker household.

A devout Quaker, her wealthy husband, a freed American slave and her emancipator come together in 1840s Dublin. As they interact, each is revealed to be rather less high-minded than they would like to be thought.

Elizabeth Kuti's play The Sugar Wife was first performed at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, in April 2005 in a production by Rough Magic. The production transferred to Soho Theatre, London, in January 2006.

The Sugar Wife won the 2006 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.