Women on The Verge of HRT

I have to confess to not only have I never seen this play, I had also never heard of it until today, and I am so pleased I had to stand in for Sue Cox who was busily involved in her own production this week.

This piece addresses the topic of menopause, often referred to as “The Change”, which affects so many women, and although I doubt Marie Jones, the writer of the piece was not wanting to make light of the subject, it was hilariously funny.

The action takes place in a bedroom of a hotel in County Donegal, Ireland and the headland overlooking the ocean near the hotel, where two ladies, Anna, played by Anna-Marie Fearnley and Vera, played by Helen Cockin had just returned from one of Daniel O’Donnell’s concerts.

Prior to the two ladies entering the room we see Heather Boulby, complete with flute, enter the room, playing said flute superbly, we were told Heather was The Banshee, a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member, usually by screaming, wailing or shrieking.

Once in place Anna enters followed by Vera, talking about the concert but Vera is more preoccupied by discussing her ex-husband, who has recently left her for a woman 25 years his junior, not only that but they now a child together much to Vera’s displeasure. We hear Vera talking very bluntly about her and her husband’s life together and the fact that she is now “left on the shelf” and feels life is passing her by. Anna, on the other hand, is quite happily married, although she feels her husband could give her more attention.

The discussions between the two ladies are hilarious and left the audience roaring with laughter throughout the entire scene and in fact the entire production. As they sit in their bedroom, Vera decides to ring for some drinks to be brought to their room, these arrive, delivered by Fergal, an Irish waiter from the hotel who initially takes no notice of Vera who has draped herself on the bed in a very scant nightdress. Andrew McDermott was excellent in this part; he had a superb Irish accent that you could imagine it was his birthright.

As the night moves on more drinks are ordered and each time Fergal delivers them, Vera tries to be more seductive especially when Anna says she is going to take a bath and leaves them alone with the drinks and the bed. At this point Fergal sings one of his poems to Vera, accompanied by Heather on the flute, Vera tries more and more to seduce Fergal, revealing more and more leg, plus other parts of her body which of course sends the audience into more laughter.

Fergal tells Vera he enjoys watching the sun go down and rise over the sea on the headland near the hotel also telling them about a party which is taking place a few doors down the corridor, as the scene ends, we see Anna leave the room to go and find the party.

Act 2 starts on the headland with The Banshee again entering playing her flute and sitting on the rocks, Vera, Anna and Fergal enter to the screeching and screaming of The Banshee, Fergal tells them the story of both The Banshee and The Puca or Phooka which is a mischievous creature in Irish Folklore.

As the scene unfolds we hear Fergal offering more of his poems in song which are joined by The Banshee on her flute, during the scene we see family members and friends of the two women entering after being called by The Banshee with her screaming and screeching, one by one they join, firstly Dessie, Vera’s ex-husband, played by Steve Razzelle, a sort of Jack-the lad character who loves the fact he has a younger bride and son. Next, we see Susie, the wife of Dessie, Sussie is played by Amanda Gill, who is obviously pleased to be with Dessie, much to the displeasure of Vera who lets her have both barrels of her imaginative shotgun.

Fergal once again sings, this time he is joined not only by Heather on her flute, he also gets both Vera and Anna to join him too, this one appears to be never ending and causes much more hilarity, at the end of this we get The Banshee screeching and screaming which results in Stella, a friend of Vera entering the stage, the conversation between the three women moves on to Vera’s love life, or lack of it until Stella played by Caroline Goddard leaves.

Once again Fergal sings his poem and we can see how he is actually the Puca of the story by being very mischievous throughout. At this point we see another friend of Vera and Anna, Peter played by Steve Razzelle, who continues to “big up” Dessie, much to the displeasure of Vera before he leaves.

After Peter leaves Vera starts to question Anna and Marty’s relationship, Anna tells Vera he doesn’t pay her much attention so Vera asks her to bring him in so she can ask him the questions, after much toing and froing between the two women Anna finally agrees to accept a visit from her husband, Marty, played by David Smith, this time we hear Marty’s voice and as Anna has said he doesn’t pay many compliments to her which results in her asking him to leave.

The two women hug each other for the final scene, both realising they may have had their best years as a wife and lover, however both of them agree their lives have not ended and must make the best of what they have left.

This production, although was extremely funny in parts it also had a great deal of pathos and made everyone in the room have good feelings for the two women in question.

Congratulations to everyone involved on a superb production, especially Karen Kirkup who had the vision to get this from page to stage, after the production I asked Karen about the music, she told me the script has one or two scant lines which she and the rest of the production team managed to fill in the blanks to get the final version of what we witnessed.

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