Martin Mulgrew

Edith and Margueritte Martin Mulgrew

On Tuesday the 12th October 1915, Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad for her role in assisting allied British and French soldiers to escape the killing fields of the First World War. Margaretha "Margueritte" Geertruida Zelle, better known by her stage name Mata Hari, was executed by a French firing squad on the 15th October 1917, almost exactly 2 years to the day after Edith Cavell. Her alleged crime - spying for the Germans. History has branded one a saint and the other a sinner. These two remarkable women are brought together on the centenary of Edith Cavell's execution in a new play to be performed at The Proud Archivist in Hackney. The play explores the two women's final hours in their respective cells being questioned by the interrogators and gives a feminine perspective on the Great War. It eschews the "brave Tommy" and "grieving wife / mother" picture of the war and looks at the war through the eyes of two remarkable women.