Mad Madge

A CounterBalance Theater production based on the novel Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton.

Eight transforming actors play 100’s of characters and all the palaces, animals and fantasy characters in a devised theater performance about the 1650’s celebrity Duchess Margaret Cavendish, “Mad Madge.”

Famous as the first female science fiction writer, her The Blazing World challenged contemporary ideas about science and women. Favorite of the king, and the first woman to visit the Royal Society, she wore patches of stars on her face, and a topless gown to the theater. A contemporary reporter wrote, “The whole story of this lady is a romance.”