Created and performed by Becky McKercher as Mary Shelley and Sarah Thuswaldner as Ada Lovelace by the Dangerous Dames Theatre based in Ottawa.

This fringe event is  a most sophisticated text by two actresses who play the individuals involved:   two women who made their mark in  litterary and mathematical history and who appear as Spirits  resurrected  in  a  cemetery  where  they   meet  one  night  to   discuss their strange and difficult relations with their familiies.

Mary Shelley  was  the wife of Poet Percy Shelley and the author of Frankenstein, a great classic  of 19th Century fiction, probably read by more people than the works of Charles Dickens.  Lady Lovelace  was the daughter of Lord Byron. She was both a scientist and a mathematician. She  was noted for her work “ on  British  mathematician   Charles Babbage’s analytical  engine which was the fore-runner of the computer.  The sense of this duo performance is not only to show  the biographies of these two women but mainly to emphasize   on one hand their relationship with these two great writers (Shelley and Byron) and on the other hand to emphasize the fact that these women were two  of the greatest minds in the 19th Century whose work surpassed almost everything that the men  had done at that time.

The title of this theatre  company ‘”Dangerous Dames”  attests to that reputation and the fact that highly intelligent women were sometimes more  feared than admired  at that period . The performance was a spritely  and a special moment of the fringe which plunged us into that British period with the accents, the costumes, the coiffures, the references and the way these two actresses  recreated the atmosphere of  witty and even mannered  conversation that took place during the gatherings of poets and writers at that time.

As well as the text, the staging of this clever confrontation  of minds and spirits was delightful because they toyed with each other, shifting roles. and moods.   Sometimes they would   take on the voices of their  husbands or fathers., pretending to debate ideas between  two  people  although the  performance was carried out by a single actress. The orchestration of these various voices was perfect and the moving from one character to  the next was seamless. Both actresses showed  enormous skill.

It was not difficult  to identify which  actress was playing  which  individual (or individuals) and  the event was totally enjoyable  because it brought a lot more depth to the way feminist theatre is usually presented . It also  confirmed to the members of the audience that they  were  well educated because the quotes and references were usually easily recognizable and immediately explained.

A perfect and intelligent vehicule for the fringe.