Review: IN A WORLD THAT’S LOST ITS BEARINGS, MADNESS SEEMS THE ONLY PLACE LEFT TO FEEL TRULY AT HOME

London’s theatre underground has found its latest pulse in The Madwoman of Camden — a sharp, surreal, and irresistibly audacious reimagining of Jean Giraudoux’s 1943 classic The Madwoman of Chaillot. Eighty years after its premiere in Nazi-occupied Paris, this new adaptation dares to look straight into the madness of our present moment — and finds, within the chaos, an unexpected sanity.

At the heart of the project is Mila Michael, the Argentine–Italian actress and producer whose creative vision fuels this contemporary resurrection. Known for her magnetic performances on Buenos Aires’ famed Calle Corrientes — often called the “Broadway of South America” — Michael has built an international career defined by versatility, courage, and a refusal to be confined by borders or conventions.

A Modern Fable for a Broken World

The Madwoman of Camden unfolds in the glittering yet decaying world of London’s most exclusive private members’ club, where a trio of powerful men — a CEO, an aristocrat, and a prospector — plot to drill beneath the city for oil. Their conspiracy is overheard by a band of misfits led by Aurelia, the eccentric “madwoman” of Camden, who decides to put the forces of greed and destruction on trial.

In this version, written by Joel Stern and directed by Lyna Dubarry, the absurdist humor of the original collides with today’s social anxieties — from environmental collapse to spiritual disillusionment.
The result is a darkly funny, intoxicating allegory that feels both ancient and urgently modern.

A Spellbinding Performance

Among the ensemble of nine exceptional actors, the comic duo of the club’s waitstaff — portrayed by Joel Stern and Mila Michael — emerges as one of the production’s highlights.

Stern, known for his sharp wit and charisma, plays Jamie, a working-class actor obsessed with selling tickets to his one-man show. He also does an excellent job of using comedy to tackle the hard-hitting and deeply poignant themes of the play in a light-hearted and entertaining manner.

Michael, meanwhile, embodies Irma, an immigrant waitress who believes she was sent to London by ancestral spirits from Tierra del Fuego. Convinced she is the reincarnation of Xalpen, a mythic being destined to turn boys into men, Irma searches for a hero who will one day need her help to change the world.

The dynamic between the two is electric — playful, poetic, and deeply human. When Jamie exposes Irma’s contradictions, revealing her opportunism and the unsettling truth of her family’s past, Michael’s performance oscillates between hilarity and heartbreak. Her final scene with the Mayor of London is a moment of sheer vulnerability, peeling back the mask to reveal a woman caught between self-mythology and survival.

Michael’s Irma becomes the emotional compass of the play: absurd, radiant, and achingly real. With her blend of physical comedy, emotional depth, and fierce intelligence, she commands the stage as both clown and oracle.

They are wonderfully surrounded by the other seven talents, with special mention to Edmund Digby-Jones and Ruggero Barlaba as the villains.

The Dream Team Behind the Madness

Mila Michael, has built an international career defined by versatility, courage, and a refusal to be confined by borders or conventions. She not only stars but also produces the piece alongside Lyna Dubarry, a French–Moroccan actress making her directorial debut after acclaimed performances in House of David (Amazon Prime) and Liaison (Apple TV+).
The script by Joel Stern, a rising British–Sri Lankan writer, performer, and director, is a deft blend of biting satire and emotional intelligence.

The trio — Michael, Dubarry, and Stern — spent months developing the production.
Their ambition: to bring The Madwoman of Camden to a full-scale London run and, ultimately, the West End.

Madness as Vision

With The Madwoman of Camden, Michael steps into her most ambitious role yet — as both performer and producer — uniting an international cast around a common purpose: reclaiming imagination as an act of resistance.

Dubarry’s direction is bold and cinematic, while Stern’s writing cuts through modern despair with laughter as its weapon. The result is theatre that feels alive, urgent, and necessary.

Minimalist in staging yet rich in atmosphere, the production relies on light, rhythm, and ritual to draw the audience into a world both familiar and dreamlike. Tarot readings, immersive interactions, and symbolic rituals turn each performance into a collective experience — an invitation to madness as a form of healing.

Michael’s leadership — artistic, organizational, and spiritual — anchors the entire enterprise. Her ability to merge Argentine passion, European sophistication, and contemporary relevance positions her as one of the most intriguing talents working across continents today.

Production History and Presentations

The piece, first developed through a series of intimate workshops, has gradually evolved into a fully realized theatrical experience. Its early presentations functioned both as creative laboratories and as opportunities to refine the emotional language of the work in front of live audiences.

The play was presented at The Park Theatre on October 28th and at Arcola Theatre on  November 10th. It was performed at The Old Red Lion on  November 7th and 8th and will be on again at Fabwick on November 12th.

The Madwoman Speaks

At its core, The Madwoman of Camden is not only about madness but about empathy — about confronting our collective traumas and learning, once again, to work in community.

“We’re all living among madness,” Michael says. “But maybe madness is just what happens when we start seeing the truth.”

With that, the madwoman smiles — and the lights go out.