Theatre Company: Ride On Theatre (with Griffin Theatre)
Writers: Bojana Novakovic (with music by Time Rogers)
Director: Tanya Goldberg
Cast: Andy Baylor, Mark Harris, Boyana Novakovic, Tim Rogers
Location: SBW Stables Theatre (Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia)

Synopsis (from the flyer):

“I should like a man to come. A perfect villain to come and fascinate me. And I should ask him quite humbly to lead me to my ruin”.
More than one hundred years ago, The Story of Mary MacLane set America aflame. A shocking confessional from the 19-year-old girl who refused to succumb to the corset-bound prudery of her age, Mary’s scandalous memoir broke all the rules - and sold over 100,000 copies.
Promiscuous prophet or philandering fool? Mary MacLane is a woman you’d be mad not to meet.

My Thoughts:

I was mesmerised throughout this production. From the very beginning, when Tim Rogers did a wonderful … really wonderful … job of introducing Mary MacLane. In the middle - when the gorgeous Bojana Novakovic did a brilliant job of sharing Mary’s history, her many male companions, her love of boiled potato at midnight and some of the darker places that Mary’s thoughts took her. Right to the end when - on stage alone an older Mary waits quietly.
Adding Tim Rogers as the narrator and he and his band as musicians added a playfulness to the production that made it quite charming. Tim was particularly good but Andy Baylor and Mark Harris played their parts well too.
Overall I thought it was a great night of theatre. I felt like I learned more about an extraordinary and colourful woman who did some quite remarkable things - especially given the time period. It was unfortunate that the folks that I went with didn’t enjoy it as much. I think Mary may have been just a tad too ‘mad’ for them.