Afterwards
Peacock stage, Abbey Theatre
★★★★☆
Set sometime after the repeal of the Eighth Amendment (the title has a neat dual meaning), Janet Moran’s lively new play for Once Off Productions is not ashamed of its unmistakable purpose. Three women, recovering in adjacent hospital beds, reveal contrasting reasons for their abortions. The “Cork Woman” (Kate Stanley Brennan) is exhausted after bringing three children into the world. The “English Woman” (Sophie Lenglinger), a Londoner, is busy with her job as a trainee solicitor. The “Young Woman” (Ebby O’Toole-Acheampong), from Dublin, is initially in denial about a rape.
Moran has taken the canny decision to set her post-Eighth comedy in an English clinic. As the Irish women make clear, there are still barriers to securing an abortion at home. The married character worries that people will talk. The younger patient didn’t meet the qualifications.
The drama, directed by the author and Conall Morrison, is necessarily a little schematic. A great deal of revelation is packed into a few relatively short conversations. We are never unaware that each character is representing a constituency. But the impeccable performances and crackling dialogue fast edge reservations aside as the three women develop a bond that is unlikely to survive discharge.
Unjust as it is to single out just one actor, O’Toole-Acheampong dominates quietly as a fragile soul who eventually realises she can’t shield herself from the truth. Moran has gentle fun with her naivety, allowing her to explain that she came over on the boat. “You know the plane is cheaper now?” the Cork Woman says patiently. Sentences are, even in a more enlightened era, still left pointedly unfinished. “Is he the ...?” the English Woman says of the man who accompanied the Young Woman on the ferry. It turns out (as played by Moone Boy’s David Rawle) he is just a charmingly ingenuous pal.
No disrespect is meant in saying that, as the production winds to an open end, it takes on the quality of a strong, and serious, situation comedy. The characters are that clearly defined. The humour is that robust.
Sad and delightful.
Continues at the Abbey Theatre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Saturday, September 14th
