I LOVE YOU MICHAEL, FROM NADINE by Megan Marzsal at Old Red Lion Theatre 17 – 21 June 2025

‘A brilliant insight into complicated women’ ★★★★

Based on an astonishing true story, ‘I Love You Michael, From Nadine’ brilliantly combines fact and fiction to paint a picture of a forgotten anti-hero.

The play opens in a 1980s French jazz bar, with Young Nadine (Ellie Baldwin) offering us a final ballad – her swan song. Between singing and reminiscing, we move between past and present, with both Young Nadine and modern-day Nadine (Kate Harbour) recounting her story: to both the audience, and to a clumsy, faux boiler engineer Cece (Megan Marszal) - who has secrets of her own.

Writer Megan Marszal (winner of the London Pub Theatre Awards Best Solo Show 2024) offers the audience something for everyone: familial love, loss, excitement, humour, and the sexy glamour of (mostly) victimless, high-class crime. She dances from plot twist to plot twist, keeping the audience on our toes with no room to relax – reflecting the conversations between the women before us.

Director Charlotte Sheehan never missed a beat, and the chemistry between the three actors sailed us through the 75 minutes. The crew’s collaboration elevates the script – particularly with Rhys Cannon’s transformative set design – a truly remarkable feat that brings us back to present day with every familiar interaction, giving a fantastical story a grounding base.

However, I do feel there was perhaps one plot-twist too many, and whilst the general pacing of the show was seamless, I wonder how much of the true story was rushed through to get to the end. As the infamous tale about the helicopter prison escape, didn’t appear until the third act it could evoke an impatience in the audience that the present-tense plot-twists were not enough to satiate.

Ultimately, ‘I Love You Michael, From Nadine’ is a brilliant insight into complicated women, who aren’t bound by the shadows of the men who create them.

Review by Anna Rastelli

CAST

Young Nadine - Ellie Baldwin

Cece - Megan Marszal

Nadine - Kate Harbour

CREW

Directed by Charlotte Sheehan

Lighting and Sound Design by Cameron Pike

Set Design by Rhys Cannon

Visual Design by Yasmin Lucas

 A MediumRare Production