“Right here, right now, for one night only, I’ll tell you something special I ain’t never told no one before; I’ll tell you the truth” is the compelling opening to multi-award winning actor, director, and creator Margo MacDonald’s production The Elephant Girls. This show is a lost piece of women’s history, telling the tale about Britain’s most notorious girl-gang who terrorized London for over 100 years. Written and performed by MacDonald, she plays the gang’s suit-wearing, bloody-knuckled, girl-chasing ‘enforcer’ Maggie Hale. 

“Maggie Hale is actually a fictional character I’ve created…using stories and details which belong to various actual historical gang members” confesses MacDonald. Since nearly all the other characters in the play are real people, MacDonald felt the need to have some flexibility to tell the story. “There is so much detail we don’t know about these women and why they did the things they did. They never kept diaries or wrote books about their exploits…[s]o I had to use my playwright’s brain to fill in the missing pieces as best I could.”

And it seems to have paid off. The Elephants Girls won MacDonald a Capital Critics Circle Award for Best Professional Actress in 2015. At the 2015 Ottawa Fringe, she was also honoured as Winner Best of Fest, Outstanding Production, Critics' Pick for Best Show. Les Prix Rideau Awards also hailed The Elephant Girls as an Outstanding New Work, Direction, and Performance. 

Although still pretty new to playwriting, especially considering her 20 years creating theatre, MacDonald is certainly a rising star. Her 2010 show Shadows was a smash hit, winning the Best of the Fest, Outstanding Overall, and Fan Favourites at the Ottawa Fringe that year. 

But MacDonald’s talents don’t stop there. In her other SpringWorks 2016 show Much Ado About Feckin’ Pirates – in which she shares the stage with co-creator Richard Gélinas - MacDonald has the opportunity to shine as an improv artist and actor-combatant. The swashbuckling antics of two quarrelling pirates promises to be “feckin’ impressive” (The Charlebois Post, Canada). 

The Elephant Girls is, by all accounts, a show that is not to be missed. Patrick Langston of the Ottawa Citizen called it an ‘outstanding solo piece’ in a production that is ‘meticulously researched, loving scripted, and directed in economical fashion by Mary Ellis.’ MacDonald is “a force to be reckoned with” and as Maggie is a “terrifying and fascinating woman [telling] an unforgettable life story” (Valerie Cardinal, OnStage Ottawa).

The Elephant Girls is onstage at SpringWorks indie theatre & arts festival in Stratford, Ontario May 17, 19, and 22. Much Ado about Feckin' Pirates is onstage at SpringWorks indie theatre & arts festival in Stratford, Ontario May 18, 20, and 21. Tickets are available online at www.SpringWorksFestival.ca or at the door. 

Jessi Séguin is an actor, playwright, and arts administrator from Stratford, Ontario. Lately she has appeared as The Field Mouse in A Wind In The Willows Christmas (Alternative Theatre Works). Some favourite writing credits include The Cousins of Corsica (2015 SpringWorks’ People’s Choice Award), Thrown (Honourable Mention, Canadian International Film Festival 2014), Pickled Heart (SpringWorks 2014), and The Man with the Leek in his Cap (shortlisted for Robertson Davies Playwriting Award, University of Toronto Drama Festival). Jessi is a graduate of the joint Acting program at Sheridan College and the University of Toronto. 

    
Photo Credits: Allan Mackey (The Elephant Girls) & Andrew Alexander (Much Ado About Feckin’ Pirates)