MRS SHAKESPEARE

Mrs Shakespeare

A One Woman Comedy!

Written and Directed by Ian Wild

Starring Irene Kelleher

'A gem of creativity and narrative structure ... never drops in intensity … it captures you immediately and compels you to laugh … the perfect balance of wit and humour, erudition and comedy … Irene Kelleher treated the audience to a compelling and extremely funny performance.

Mattia Leoni Shakespeare Festival Director, Clonakilty.

'This play WILL get you laughing.'

Grant March Inside Cork

Trailer. https://vimeo.com/97168759

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrsshakespeareplay

William Shakespeare finds himself reincarnated in the present day as a woman, which makes it all the more difficult to convince people he is the Great Bard. The Globe and the RSC refuse point blank to stage his modern history plays such as Hitler the First and Charles the Third (Not). Frustrated by this lack of recognition, Mrs Shakespeare winds up in a mental asylum, and comes to the conclusion she has made a complete mess of writing 'Hamlet' four hundred years earlier. Armed with a quill and beset by a rebellious cast of characters who are anxious not to be rewritten, she embarks on an epic reformulation of theatre's most famous text under the new title of 'Ophelia'. But her psychiatrist and the original dramatis personae of the play, are so against the idea, they contrive between them, to send her mad.

Best selling show in Edinburgh's Paradise Green gets five Star Review

“Effervescent” is not the first adjective that Shakespeare brings to mind, but Irene Kelleher’s female incarnation of the Bard is certainly that. Everything about this production is vibrant, from Ian Wild’s fast-paced script and equally punchy direction, to the eponymous character’s silk doublet and hose, which are gaily slashed with pink. Kelleher clearly delights in her role and this likeable actress carries the audience along for the ride with exuberant ease and copious laughs. The palpable energy thus felt in the room is what sets Mrs Shakespeare aside from most one-handers – or indeed most shows – at the Fringe.

Kelleher’s “William” (named so by her Shakespeare-fanatic parents) believes herself to be the Bard reincarnated 400 years or so after he penned the Danish Play, and so sets out during the course of this one to redress the balance between the genders in general, and Ophelia and Hamlet in particular. Scratching feverishly at paper with a pink feather quill between sessions on her therapist’s couch, she gleefully declares that she has, ‘given all the male characters menial tasks to perform offstage’, before effortlessly donning each of these personalities in turn with mesmerising skill. It is only when William starts to view his/her real-world acquaintances as fellow Elizabethans – including her therapist as Shakespeare’s doomed literary rival, Christopher Marlowe – that the seams of this hitherto jolly device start to unravel to manic effect.

Despite its delightfully frivolous air, there are serious undertones to this play. As well as the feminist touch, mental illness is an increasingly prevalent current which seems all the darker for being played for laughs, though perhaps a little over-simplistic at times. But the meat of the play lies less in its depiction of what is, and more in its joyful exploration of what could be. It is never made completely clear whether William is in fact delusional, and Wild and Kelleher between them leave us with a nugget of hope that maybe, just maybe, (s)he is not. Either way, this is a clever and spirited play that is rather different from most, and all the better for it.

Photograph by John Allen

" Mrs. Shakespeare got our inaugural Drama Day at Skibbereen Arts Festival off to an excellent start. Irene Kelleher's energy is amazing and she had the audience enthralled from the start with her mesmerizing delivery of Ian Wild's hilarious and at times very moving script. We would highly recommend Mrs. Shakespeare to other festivals and venues and it would be suitable for any kind of venue in the world! "

Brendan McCarthy. Skibbereen Arts Festival.

Mrs Shakespeare Wins Fringe Award.

The third review from ‪#‎BrightonFringe‬ FIVE STARS AND AN ARGUS ANGEL AWARD. The Argus Angel Awards are given to a show that displays 'outstanding artistic merit'.

Some quotes from the review: 'Ian Wild’s one-woman play explored identity, feminism and madness, drawing from and cleverly working with Shakespeare’s Hamlet....The excellent Irene Kelleher made the title character wide-eyed and sympathetic, and transformed superbly into the characters.....But the laughs were matched by some impressive dramatic heft. Kelleher beautifully captured the tragedy of the “underwritten” Ophelia, with tears in her eyes as she asked “Who am I?'

READ FULL REVIEW HERE:

http://www.theargus.co.uk/…/12942749.ARGUS_ANGEL_WINNER_Br…/

And a five star review from Broadway Baby.

'A Shakespearian play couldn’t have been given a more ludicrous premise, but it was carried off brilliantly by Irene Kelleher with humour, passion and endless amounts of energy. As the one and only performer on stage throughout the entire performance, backed up only by a few pieces of incidental music and amusing props, Kelleher was outstanding. Her energy never waned and every line was bursting with character. Each of the main characters were distinguishable and well defined by the comic mannerisms offered to them: Henry’s heavy German accent, Hamlet’s sassy strutting, Claudius’ angry mopping.

The script is packed with witty takes on Shakespearean prose, creating a unique cast of characters in a very unique situation. However, behind all the silliness a sobering reality lies, and it is only towards the end of the play that the Shakespearian charade begins to fall away and the delusions of the loveably mad William come to the fore. The therapy sessions with Henry and William’s journal entries cleverly serve to etch away at William’s world until reality and fiction merge together and unravel at once, culminating in a delicate and touching finale in which William asks the question that all writers make their characters ask themselves: who am I? It is easy to say that Ian Wild’s script is all at once funny, clever, and inspiring and offers the Fringe one of the most interesting plays to see this year.

Wild Productions