It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Madge – Electric Theatre, Guildford

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Madge was reviewed at the Electric Theatre, Guildford.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (c.1623–73) was a prolific writer of plays, poetry and prose essays on subjects including philosophy, science and gender, who, unusually for a woman living in the 17th century, published her extensive output under her own name. Born into a wealthy family and privately educated, she married a courtier 30 years her elder and became known as ‘Mad Madge’ for her many eccentricities.

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Madge offers a fitting tribute to this fascinating woman in the year presumed to be the 400th anniversary of her birth (an anniversary that has otherwise gone largely unmarked). Subtitled ‘the live resurrection of Margaret Cavendish’, it explicitly labels itself as not being a biopic or ‘dramatised Wikipedia page’, and makes no claims to factual accuracy, exhaustive biographical exegesis or even character development.

Instead, PINCHY theatre’s production offers a one-woman experimental theatre show with a twist of stand-up comedy and musical theatre, intertwining storytelling, song and audience participation. It serves primarily as a vehicle for Anna Hale as ‘Madge’ (Cavendish), an actor who certainly knows how to keep audiences entertained, holding their attention in the palm of her hand throughout its one-hour duration.

Written by director Clare Packham and musical director Fintan Kealy (billed as Packham & Kealy) in co-creation with Hale herself, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Madge is replete with contemporary pop-cultural references while also continually reminding the audience of its 17th-century frame. Delightfully self-referential, it frequently pokes fun at itself; at one point Hale even states that ‘you shouldn’t read your own reviews’ (so I trust she won’t be reading this), gesturing toward a certain reviewer as she did so.

At the same time, the show is rather less conventional than many that describe themselves as musicals. Several of its songs do not unfold into fully-fledged numbers, among the most developed being the pop/rap fusion ‘Sexy Period Drama’ and a more plaintive closing number following the obligatory costume change. Watch out, too, for the grim detail entered into when recounting Cavendish’s nail-biting habits.

A thoroughly versatile performer, Hale seems to relish the comedy value of the sudden gear changes between different theatrical modes, which neatly reflect Cavendish’s own multifaceted activities. The show’s fragmentary and experimental nature, coupled with the eerie sound design and frequent use of loop pedal, correspondingly evoke the madness of its title. One has to marvel at the technical wizardry of the lighting and particularly the audio, courtesy of lighting designer Maddie Maycock and technician Tom Simkins, which greatly contribute to its overall effect.

Cavendish’s rediscovery has been the product of decades of labour on the part of literary critics and feminist historians, leading to recent full-length biographies by Katie Whitaker and Francesca Peacock as well as to many of her works now being widely studied in modern print and digital editions. Cavendish may no longer need a resurrection, but It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Madge certainly brings her to life.

Christopher Wiley