Margery Kempe
&
The Fire of Love
The Mystery of Margery Kempe
Although it's embarrassingly frank at times, Kempe's autobiographical Book leaves us yearning for answers. Mystic, hysteric, saint or sham, she comes centre stage in my play The Fire of Love. Recently premièred in Wells-next-the-Sea, near Kempe's home town of Kings Lynn in Norfolk, UK, my play keeps Kempe's contradictions in tension, as she herself did.
Good reading, great theatre
With a cast of ten or a dozen, The Fire of Love suits amateur and professional groups alike, including open-minded church groups. (The première, reviewed here, cast a priest as the priest!)
Reflecting the Book, my final act tries Kempe on a charge of blasphemous obscenity with the audience cast as jurors. The final curtain leaves them to reach individual verdicts - if they can!
The Fire of Love is available in paperback with a cover showing Kempe in happier times - embarrassing her husband by mimicking their priest!
Everyone has a different view of Margery Kempe. To see what others have made of her visit Agony and Ecstasy, or to tell me what she means to you please get in touch.
Tony D Triggs