Dana Bagshaw’s play Cell Talk, published by Radius, is a series of dialogues between Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. A different version of the play, Tried and Tested, focuses on Margery’s arrest and trial for heresy in Leicester in 1417 and was presented in Leicester Guildhall this summer. Elisabeth Dutton has played Margery in Cell Talk with Radius member Betty Stokes as Julian, and she also joined the audience for Tried and Tested. (see photo copy below)

‘I AM Margery Kempe!’ This extraordinary comment from an audience member after Cell Talk’s opening night is a tribute to the skill of Dana Bagshaw’s script, to the intensely personal relationship which it facilitates between the historical subject of the play and those who see the play performed. I have taught the texts which inspired Cell Talk - The Book of Margery Kempe and The Revelation of Love of Julian of Norwich – to numerous undergraduates. Their responses have been at best patronising (‘it must have been hard to be a medieval woman!’) and at worst condemnatory (‘mad women, paranoid and delusional!’). It was exhilarating to discover what happened to these women’s texts when crafted into theatre: words which, when studied academically, on the page, seemed distant and derisory, when performed inspired not condemnation but respect and empathy.

Cell Talk recreates – albeit imaginatively – an actual, historical meeting between Julian and Margery. In consultation with the playwright, we sought to suggest the medieval but not to recreate it slavishly. The parish church was a wonderful setting not for its historical authenticity – it is only partly medieval – but because it is a sacred space for a play which treats sacred themes. Incidental music, pieces which medieval pilgrims to Jerusalem, such as Margery, might have encountered on their travels, more importantly combined an earthy vibrancy with awe and joy, mirroring the spirituality of the play’s protagonists.

The play is an hour-long two-hander, with its protagonists equally weighted. Margery is restless and mobile, but Julian is still within her anchoritic cell. We were anxious about the demands of such a play – would we be able to sustain the energy needed to hold the audience for a static hour? There is no doubt that the play is demanding for its actors, but we found also that the audience rose to the play’s demands. Probably the church setting contributed to a sense that the audience were on our side: people coming into a church bring different expectations from those they carry to a theatre, which is not an excuse for amateurism but a reflection that an audience in a church might be more prepared for meditative material.

With these reflections on performing Cell Talk in mind, I travelled to Leicester Guildhall to see Tried and Tested, a longer, promenade version of the play to which are added scenes of Margery’s trials, and the character of her husband, John. A platform at one end of the historic guildhall was Julian’s cell; a gallery at the other end was Margery’s bedroom: a cobbled courtyard was Julian’s garden. The historic cathedral was an evocative setting for Margery’s interrogation by the church authorities. To spine-tingling effect, Margery’s trial before Leicester’s mayor was recreated in the small medieval hall which probably also witnessed the original event, and the presence of the modern-day mayor in the audience added greatly to the sense of connection with the past.

The historical feel of this production came not just from its imaginative use of venue, but also from the script itself. By introducing clerics and townsfolk, Tried and Tested draws attention to the community outside Julian’s cell and offers perspectives beyond the control of the two women’s words. Margery comes to the fore, as active in this medieval society, while Julian and her enclosed world fade: Julian becomes another character, like John, who comments on Margery’s experiences, and in fact fades even beside John, who laughs and jokes with the audience directly in a way in which Julian could not.

I did rather miss Julian in Tried and Tested. And while Margery’s stature in the play is extraordinary, she loses the immediate appeal to the audience which is so moving in the two-woman play: John’s witty discussion of his wife with the audience makes him mediator of the audience’s relationship with her. In compensation, the play’s portrayal of Margery’s marriage is touching: furthermore, the Leicester production created a wonderful sense of the drama of history, with fine costumes and live medieval music – shawms and all! – and creative use of a magnificent period setting. The production fitted its setting, and its non-church audience.