Simon Ward reviews Mary’s Daughters at The Space Theatre

The Space is a theatre and arts venue in the heart of the Isle of Dogs. It is housed in a former Victorian Presbyterian church, which is an intriguing historical artefact in its own right. It was acquired by the St Paul’s Arts Trust in the late 1980s and, following substantial restoration work, it opened its doors as a venue in 1996. I have no doubt that it has hosted a huge variety of events since then, but this show must surely be one of the most apposite – a story of change and legacy from Victorian times, and before, up to the present day. This is a compelling drama which reminds us that the past is present everywhere in our everyday reality. And it is a powerful call to arms on behalf of three remarkable women.

Written by Kaya Bucholc and Will Wallace and directed by Kay Brattan, this is a literary play which is not afraid to make demands on its audience. Much of the dialogue seems to be taken directly from the writings of the protagaonists and is never less than convincingly of its time. There are, however, leavening moments of more demotic language which adds humour and offers the audience a way in to the narrative. The play is subtitled A Feminist Ghost Story and, in a sense, the characters are all ghosts – they are long dead but for the play they are here in our time, and they know how we speak these days. The daughters in the title belong to Mary Wollstonecraft (Megan Carter), author of A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman, founder of modern feminism, friend and collaborator with the radical thinkers of her day, like Thomas Paine and William Blake. The outline of her life that is perhaps most familiar is that she died in giving birth to her daughter, Mary (Rachael Reshma), who would go on to marry the poet Percy Shelley, and write Frankenstein. This is to completely obliterate Mary’s first daughter, Fanny Imlay, (Kaya Bucholc) born after a passionate affair in Paris with an American cad, Gilbert Imlay, who abandoned them, leaving mother and child destitute. When Mary later found lasting love with William Godwin, he consented to adopt Fanny, but she always felt that William and Mary’s own daughter, Mary, was preferred. And history has all but forgotten her.

During the course of the show, in a series of vignettes moving back and forth through their lives, we learn a lot about all of them, much brand new, much shedding light on details we thought we already knew. And all the stories are fascinating – the challenges and pressures of a woman living in the Georgian and Victorian periods are brought vividly to life. Added to that is the determination and desire that they all have to be as free as they can be – Mary and her daughters strive hard to live up to their ideals even when life, and men, make it extremely difficult.

The performances are uniformly excellent – the actors work brilliantly together as a family group, with the sisters convincingly vying for the mother’s attention. In a play that could be over-dense with ideas, the clarity and focus of delivery ensure that we remain gripped and transfixed throughout. In spite of their bickering and often bitter arguments, the three are bound together irreparably. Towards the end of the play her daughters bring Mary Wollstonecraft face-to-face with the legacy of her work today – it is an utterly charming, funny and delightful moment in a powerful and challenging play.

Mary’s Daughters is running at The Space Theatre, 269 Westferry Road, London E14 3RS until Saturday 30th March