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Wild Productions’ Mrs Shakespeare is an eccentric, dynamic and rambunctious one-woman-show. Written and directed by Ian Wild and starring Irene Kelleher, the West-Cork play received significant acclaim for its Edinburgh Fringe and Off-Broadway productions. Whatever else this bizarre play does, it guarantees to keep you in suspense – laughs, shrieks and intrigue abound.

The plot revolves around Mrs Shakespeare, the modern day female reincarnation of her male namesake. Battling clinical insanity, a German psychiatrist, and creative differences, she takes on the challenge of re-writing one of Shakespeare’s best known works – Hamlet. The male dominated play seems to her, in hindsight, to be a backward mess which must be righted by transforming it under the new title Ophelia. However, confined to a psychiatric asylum, Mrs Shakespeare is repeatedly met with skepticism. Is it the implausibility of her reincarnation, the jealousy of Chris Marlowe returned to haunt her (in the form of her psychiatrist, no doubt), or her identity as female that restricts her creative success? Bounding across the stage in alternating lunatic distress and euphoria, Mrs Shakespeare is a powerful heroine and a tragic victim of both her insanity and her gender.

The hour-long, vivacious comedy pulls the audience from one absurdity to the next. The return of old Hamlet characters, furious at their degradation in the revised text, challenge Mrs Shakespeare’s power as a writer. Coupled with her enraged psychiatrist, these men ridicule her legitimacy and intelligence. With time, the trappings of comedy give way to an underlying tragic family history and the woman behind Mrs Shakespeare is exposed. The repressive physical surroundings of the psychiatric ward are mirrored through the mentally repressive male characters in her past and present life. Troubled both internally and externally, Mrs Shakespeare ultimately triumphs by silencing these voices and establishing control over her own life and her own creativity, regardless of the consequences.

Kelleher’s sheer energetic exuberance gives vivid life to an incredible performance of emotion. In the end it is apparent that Mrs Shakespeare defies her role as the incarcerated, restrained woman. Indeed she is in fact the heroine of her own story, the unfaltering empowered woman who knows no bounds, be they creative, physical or social. Go see it. Bring an open mind.

Mrs Shakespeare runs at Smock Alley Theatre until 24 October. Prices range from €8-€12.