The Company -- A collection of individuals from various groups in Leicestershire.

Leanne Mitchell - Margery Kempe Leanne is Artistic Director of the Translucent Theatre Company based at the Oadby Baptist Church, but touring as far as Nepal, and also appearing in productions at the Little Theatre. She teaches drama at Vale of Catmose College in Oakham. This is her fifth production in which to play Margery.

Brian Glover - John Kempe /Assistant Director Brian is also an active member of the Translucent Theatre, has appeared in Little Theatre productions, and is a retired drama teacher at Little Hill County Primary School. This is his fourth production in which he plays the role of John. He directed the opening Mad scene and advised on others.

Dorothy Root - Julian of Norwich Dorothy is a very experienced actress who has performed many times at the Little Theatre in Leicester and the Lonsdale Players of Leicestershire. More recently she has acted with a group in the village of Kibworth. She played the role of Julian for the first time in the Norwich Cathedral on May 1 of this year.

Michael Bull - Townsman / Priest Michael is well known in Leicester for his work at the Little Theatre. He teaches at a primary school in Evington and is a keen cricketer.

Roy Iliffe - Ferryman / Countryman. A member of Leicesteshire Playwrights, Roy likes to be involved in performing as well and has appeared with Herrick and Table Turns Theatres. He works as a county librarian in Loughborough.

Sandra Wildbore ne Fisher - Keeper / Countrywoman Sandra is a member of Table Turns Theatre and was born in King's Lynn but grew up and lives in Leicester.

Laurie Cusack - Keeper / Countryman Lauie is a keen actor and member of Herrick, Darklands, and Table Turns Theatres in Leicester.

Juliet Bewley - Prompter / Countrywoman Juliet is a staunch supporter of the arts in Leicester and enjoys summer sailing.

Graham Neville - Lighting Graham brings his technical expertise from touring with the Translucent Theatre Company.

Owen Bentley - Sound / Music Owen has spent 40 years in radio. Now a radio programming consultant he is a former Head of BBC Radio in the Midlands and Manager of BBC Radio Leicester. Music is a big interest; he is Chairman of the Leicester Bach Choir.

Dana Bagshaw - Playwright / Producer Dana studied playwriting at San Jose State University, California, and is currently a member of Leicestershire Playwrights.

Roy Wyse - Director Roy is an experienced teacher of adult drama and a veteran director from the Little Theatre in Leicester. He directed the well-received production of the two-woman show "Cell Talk" at Norwich Cathedral, which was his 70^th production since being based in Leicester. He has remained as an adviser to Mad for God and has directed all the scenes involving Julian and Act II Scene1.

Incidental music is drawn from a collection of fourteenth- and fifteenth- century pieces which medieval pilgrims to Jerusalem, such as Margery, might have encountered on their travels. Flavours of Eastern Europe and the Middle East blend with a vibrant English tradition.

A special thanks to Simon Ainge who composed the music for the evensong plainchant and to his choir from St. Peter's Parish Church in Oadby for recording the evensong service.

Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich, two icons of Medieval Norfolk first came together in a meeting recorded in Margery's book in 1410. Little is known about the two women other than the two books they left behind: Revelations of Love, Julian's book, written at the same time of Chaucer, and the Book of Margery Kempe arguably the first autobiography to be written in English.

Julian was born in 1343, survived two Plagues, and after receiving divine "showings" in 1373 became an anchoress in a cell attached to a small church in Norwich where she began to write her book. In that same year, Margery 20 years her junior married a burgess in Bishop’s Lynn. Margery also thought she had a special calling, and came to visit Julian of Norwich to validate this. The play explores what might have led to that meeting, as well as other meetings that could have occurred over the next ten years.

The play won the Radius 2000 religious drama award, and the two women were reunited in a staged reading in January 2001 at the Covent Gardens Theatre Museum, and the two-hander version of the play was subsequently published by Radius under the title "Cell Talk." From there, Cell Talk was performed in Oxfordshire and Yorkshire, while expanded versions of the play were performed in Leicestershire.

Now Margery is at last appearing in her hometown of Lynn. With new scenes set in Lynn, this production includes the character of Margery's husband as well as the figure of her temptations, to further explore the controversial Margery. Was she mad or gifted? A "poser" or a sincere woman of faith? An ecstatic or, as Terry Jones recently dubbed her on BBC2, a "professional hysteric"? What drove her to the extremes she displayed? In her book Margery mentions an "unconfessed" sin, but never tells what it was. The play attempts to explain what the nature of that sin might have been.

Dana Bagshaw