Chrissie Fitch

The play, whilst covering intense themes, is incredibly profound on a psychological level. Absolutely floored by the five actresses in it; they are amazingly talented and professional given the material they are conveying in such a clever, creative, sensitive and engaging way. Being an avid theatre goer and freelancing as theatre critic and media reviewer, I am disappointed (appalled, even) at other reviews claiming that the pauses must have been staged. There were two pauses during the performance I attended as people (including adult men) were taken in either the dress circle, royal circle or balcony (my friend and I were in stalls). Please note that none of these pauses are staged (it was a serious play not “a comedy of errors”, but completely genuine, and makes sense given the emotive (but very real and historically significant) material. Some people may not have seen the trigger warnings of sexual coercion and 1960s abortion on the website like we did beforehand so were naturally startled and it could have caused a lot of anxiety (resulting in dizziness, fainting and sickness). Also, some people might have been experiencing vertigo given the height and steepness of their seats coupled with the graphic scenes. As we were front row of stalls and the stage was high, we might have also missed some of the staging that people seated at a height would have had full view of. As spectators, we need to be more emotionally intelligent.