It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Madge

“Who knows but after my honourable burial, I may have a glorious resurrection in following ages” - Margaret Cavendish, 1655.

A woman stands alone in a pit of ashes. What happens next is a live resurrection. It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad Madge is a one-woman musical, where 17th Century visionary Margaret Cavendish returns to the living for an hour of stand-up, manifesto, performance art and experimental musical theatre.

Madge was a renowned writer, playwright, scientist, philosopher, early animal rights activist, and arguably the very first science fiction author. Renowned not for her skill and innovation, but for being ‘mad’. Samuel Pepys called her ‘a mad, conceited, ridiculous woman’. Virginia Woolf said her plays were ‘intolerable’.
They all called her ‘Mad Madge’. Her name? Margaret Cavendish.

Margaret’s plays were never performed in her lifetime. To make up for it, we’ve given Madge her own one-woman musical. This isn’t a dramatised Wikipedia page. It’s not even a loose biopic. This is a live resurrection.

Content Warnings:This show contains strong language, depictions of pain, descriptions of violence, references to death, references to infertility and sex references.

Written by Packham & Kealy, in co-creation with Anna Hale
Produced by PINCHY theatre

WRITER & DIRECTOR: Clare Packham
WRITER & MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Fintan Kealy
LIGHTING DESIGNER: Maddie Maycock
MADGE: Anna Hale (6th, 7th, 8th (7pm) & 9th March)

MADGE (Alternate): Esmée Cook (5th, 8th (2pm) & 10th March)