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Scenes from a marriage: Jab @parktheatre

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Jab takes us back to five years ago when no theatres were open. Instead, it was staying at home watching endless television, clapping for the NHS, mask-wearing and hand washing. Against this backdrop, isolation from a married couple of 29 years slowly drives them apart and to the brink. But while it captures the period well, you want to know more about this couple on the edge. It's currently playing at Park Theatre after its premiere run at the Finborough Theatre last year.  James McDermott's play is loosely based on his parent's lives during the pandemic. It opens with Ann (Kacey Ainsworth) and Don (Liam Tobin) watching the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson inform the nation they need to stay at home. She is an NHS worker, and he runs a vintage shop. As she is an essential worker, she has work to do, but he is forced to stay at home while his shop is closed. There's also another source of tension in that Anne brings in all the income in the household. And so we watch ...

Best laid plans: Gracie @Finborough

Itā€™s a whirlwind life for Gracie. The title character in this piece who is its storyteller and survivor. She was born into a polygamous religious cult, taken across the US border at the age of eight after her mother became the wife of an elder there. The eighteenth wife. As she reaches fifteen she hopes for a husband who is sweet and kind. And not too old. But those controlling her life have other ideas. 

The European premiere of Joan MacLeodā€™s work has been playing at the Finborough Theatre on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. While it is a work of fiction, itā€™s packed full of evocative detail that it feels like it could be true. Especially with Carla Langleyā€™s engaging performance in the title role. Over the course of an 90 minute monologue she moves from childlike optimism to fear and entrapment then hope following an escape. 

Itā€™s part adventure, part mundane life and part horror story. Particularly as it becomes clear of the life set out before her as part of ā€œGodā€™s planā€. Or rather, religion used as a cover for abuse and criminal activity.
The programme notes that the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has been suspected of trafficking women across states and borders. Sometimes for polygamous marriages against their will. While the piece doesnā€™t depict violence or sexual abuse, it feels like itā€™s there all the same. This is a simple production. There are few effects which focus on the details and the story to be told.

Part of the Canadian Playwrights at the Finborough series and Directed by Gemma Aked-Priestley, Gracie concludes on May 15

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