Mad Bad and Dangerous to Know is a 1975 Australian play by Ron Blair about Lord Byron based on Byron's letters. It was a one man play originally performed by John Bell. The play was especially written for Bell.
The play debuted at the Adelaide Festival in 1976.
"Somehow the aftertaste is unpleasant," wrote the Sydney Sun Herald.
"The portrait is monotonous, soon tiresome," wrote Romola Costatino the Sydney Morning Herald, reviewing the Adelaide debut. Months later reviewing the Sydney production the same critic felt the work had been much improved and "is now a strong, gripping study of a fascinating man."
David Marr in The Bulletin compared the play with Blair's earlier one man play The Christian Brothers. He wrote "Mad, Bad is not the haymaker of Brothers but itâÂÂs meatier and more ambitious than might be expected. At times, describing ShelleyâÂÂs beach cremation, for instance, it has something of the impact that Brothers demonstrates is possible in this hyper-risky, concentrated format."
The Canberra Times wrote "We leave the Playhouse conscious that the piece began with a death remembered â that of his mother. It ends with Byron's own last breath, the conclusion of a life and a theatrical moment which both leave us richer for the encounter."
The Sydney Tribune felt the pay "works best in -the first act with Byron inGenoa in 1822 surveying with cynical self-awareness the amazing litter of his amorous conquests. The second act, with Byron on his deathbed in Greece two years later, is thinner and less convincingly handled, the play losing some of its dramatic force as one becomes more conscious of the letters as such, rather than the inner workings of the man who wrote them."
The Australian Jewish Times called it "an excellent showpiece for John Bell's outstanding talent.... The evening is no more than an extremely well presented literary exercise."
The play was adapted for ABC radio in 1989.