'Highly professional performances' in this year's Edinburgh Fringe production

History is full of women who have been marginalised from their own biographies, but there are few for whom this is more true than Melinda Marling.

Paris in the 1930s was full of rich Americans in search of la vie bohème. Despite their enthusiastic adoption of black turtlenecks, gitanes and berets, they were instantly identifiable in every Right Bank cocktail party and Left Bank dive bar. Among them was Melinda, a pretty Park Avenue princess and heiress to a Chicago manufacturing fortune.

As the Nazis closed in, Melinda played tennis, drank champagne and flirted with a dashing British diplomat. Their whirlwind romance led to a hurried wedding in 1940 as the British embassy scrambled to evacuate. Melinda’s new husband was Donald Maclean – and he was the deadliest agent of Soviet Russia. Over the following decade, Maclean passed thousands of highly classified documents to Moscow, including the secrets of the Enigma code and the Manhattan project. He was part of the Cambridge spy ring, a group of public school intellectuals who were radicalised at university and recruited to work for the KGB. Much has been written about them – how, and why, did these pillars of the establishment turn against the system that produced them?

However, almost nothing has been written about Melinda. Documents released in 2015 revealed that she was not only complicit in her husband’s treachery, but helped to facilitate it – she photographed the documents he stole and introduced him to powerful American politicians and businessmen who allowed him access to confidential information. Even when Maclean himself came under suspicion, nobody thought to question his wife. Polite, well-dressed, the perfect hostess: who could possibly believe that she was capable of such betrayal?

Melinda died in New York in 2010. She never spoke to the media and took her secrets to her grave. Who was she? How did she become the lynchpin of the most catastrophic information leak of the twentieth century, and even more importantly, why? Was she coerced by a fanatical husband, or blinded by political ideology?

The more I tried to research her life, the more frustrated I became by the almost total academic silence surrounding her. In the thousands of pages devoted to Maclean, Burgess, Philby, Blunt and Cairncross, she barely merits a passing mention. As with so many female figures from history, she is pushed firmly to the margins. She exists in the negative space created by her husband’s infamy: not Melinda, but ‘The Traitor’s Wife’.

I decided to reclaim her narrative, following her from the moment she met Donald in 1939 to her defection in 1952. My version of her story is unapologetically fictional – so little is recorded of her feelings and actions that I have made them up. The words of the men surrounding her, however, are largely drawn from the historical record.

I count myself incredibly fortunate to have collaborated with an exceptionally talented composer in John Moore. John has been writing for the stage for over thirty years: ‘The Traitor’s Wife’ is his eleventh original musical and includes some of his most brilliant – and unforgettable – music. Drawing on Russian folk songs, 1940s jazz and the classical canon, he has created a musical vernacular for the story that is wholly original, but somehow recognisable. This is the third show we have written together, and the fourth time we have collaborated with Sian Stanhope, our fantastic choreographer. Her ability to create location, time period and character through movement never ceases to amaze me.

The greatest privilege of working at Shrewsbury is the calibre of talent that I get to work with, and the company of ‘The Traitor’s Wife’ was no exception. Not only were they fabulous actors, singers and dancers, but they were also a delight to be around, always highly professional, enthusiastic and supportive of each other. The company was led by Hattie Attwood (OS) who gave a ‘powerhouse performance’ as Melinda. She captured Melinda’s complex relationship with Donald in a performance of extraordinary emotional maturity. Donald was played by Kit S (SH, UVI) in his debut performance at Shrewsbury – perhaps a reminder that it is never too late to try something new. Critics praised his ‘brooding portrayal of a troubled soul wrestling with his demons’. The third wheel of their relationship was Guy Burgess, superbly played by Billy Gardiner (OS). Salopian audiences have become accustomed to Billy’s magnificent vocal technique, but this role gave him the opportunity to showcase his acting ability, giving a truly poignant and moving performance as the drunken, shambolic, but idealistic Burgess.

The spies’ treachery was facilitated by Maclean’s KGB handler – and sometime mistress – played with characteristic subtlety and sophistication by Poppy Godsal (OS). As Poppy had already started term at ArtsEd by the time of the Shrewsbury performance, her role was taken on by her brilliant understudy, Emma Bannister (OS) and it was fascinating to see an alternative interpretation.

The ensemble was full of fantastic cameo performances: Hettie S (EDH, UVI) as Melinda’s more conventional sister; Oscar Niblett (OS) as the callous and calculating Kim Philby; Pippa Lawton Smith (OS) as the journalist who initially uncovers the spy ring; Sammy Patten (OS) and James Gibbon (OS) as menacing KGB officers; Grace G (M, IV) and Tommy G (SH, V) as the Maclean children; Massimo Wyatt (OS), Will O’H (Ch, LVI), Ollie C (R, UVI) and Henry Clark (OS) as marvellously pompous representatives of the British establishment. Every single member of the cast was utterly committed on stage, and their energy and enthusiasm was infectious.

The cast were magnificently supported by a wonderful band, under the baton of Musical Director John Moore. The extraordinarily talented group of Ivo Winkley (OS), Max Darke (OS), Ethan Poon (OS), James Mackinnon(OS), Matt Keulemans (OS) Bob L (S, LVI) and Vicky Kirk accompanied the action sensitively throughout, fuelled entirely by Mrs Kirk’s jaffa cakes.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the support of the staff, who gave up their holiday to travel up the M6 and keep the company watered and fed throughout a hectic few weeks. I am enormously grateful to Toby Percival, Lauren Temple, Ian Reade and Seb Cooley for their generosity and willingness to help out.

Dr Helen Brown

Deputy Head (Co-Curricular) and Director of Drama