Mary and the Hyenas musical at Hull Truck Theatre – review

It’s a daunting proposition – and one that Maureen Lennon fails to pull off, despite promising moments – to re-tell the life of Mary Wollstonecraft in a way that updates her problems and ideals to the 21^st century, at the same time punctuating it with modern anthems (by Billy Nomates). Perhaps the essential problem lies in reducing Mary to a very angry, sometimes hysterical punkish figure. Of course, she was angry (and justifiably so), but there was so much more to her than slogans.

Lennon sticks fairly closely to actual events, though over-simplifying them: the school at Stoke Newington, Mary’s relationship with Fanny Blood (though the facts are blurred), her spell as a governess to a noble Anglo-Irish family, the French Revolution and her child by Gilbert Imlay, her attempted suicide by drowning, her marriage to William Godwin and her death following childbirth.

The piece begins, chaotically and noisily, in 1797 with the birth of her daughter Mary, later Mary Shelley. Soon it is established that the mother has only ten days to live and, accompanied by Mary, presented as grown-up, she lives out her life in those ten days. The conceit of her daughter as a companion works well, with Ainy Medina projecting a sympathetic character, but it is difficult to identify with Wollstonecraft herself. Throughout the entire first half, Laura Elsworthy rarely drops below a shout.

Esther Richardson, artistic director of Pilot Theatre, directs with more regard to energy than subtlety, her all-female cast negotiating the extra-deep steps of the set with aplomb to race around, moving boxes and striking attitudes.

However, there are telling performances throughout. Aside from Elsworthy, the five members of the cast take around four parts each and all make their mark in at least one of them. Kate Hampson’s Lady Kingsborough, with her invisible dogs on leashes, makes the parody work with a gloriously over-the-top turn, then turns it all round with a timidly tongue-tied Godwin. Kat Johns-Burke, having made an early impact as Wollstonecraft’s sardonically drunk father, conveys Fanny’s appeal convincingly. Beth Crane shines as Margaret, Mary’s protegee in Ireland, and Elexi Walker is dignified and duplicitous as Imlay.

The second half, despite an ill-conceived travesty of the French Revolution, is much better than the first, with a witty Philosopher’s Chorus, poking fun at male superiority, and an attractive love song onboard ship. These two are the highlights of Nomates’ score. Elsworthy increasingly finds the humanity in Wollstonecraft and, in a final anthem, her legacy is played out year by year with her 19th-century successors.