Dublin Fringe Festival 2024: Afterwards

Ebby O'Toole-Acheampong, Sophie Lenglinger, Kate Stanley Brennan in Afterwards. Photo by Patricio Cassinoni

****

A polemic on abortion post Repeal The Eight, Janet Moran’s Afterwards resembles an educational, public information broadcast from the 1980s. Moran’s cookie cutter, tick box, stay on message script quickstepping around women still seeking abortions abroad. Narratively, little of interest happens; three women receiving aftercare in an abortion clinic in England relay personal histories and political highlights during an overnight stay. A rape victim, a one night stand, and a mother who doesn’t want any more children ensure all groups are represented. Like a twenty piece jigsaw puzzle, Moran’s neatly cut pieces are then assembled to match the prepackaged picture. History, activism, Ireland post Repeal the Eight, the various reasons and responses to abortion all discussed with no surprises, shocks, twists or really fresh insights. Not even the anti-abortion lobby protesting outside the clinic can raise a genuine stake. Slack action interspersed by Shadaan Felfeli’s Carry On orderly whose campy dispensing of bad scrambled eggs with a side of encouragement elicits a few giggles. Moran’s world one where male advocates of women’s choice are either gay or utterly gormless. David Rawle’s cringe inducing young man looking like he’d struggle to hold a conversation with a woman over the age of eleven. With stakes at a minimum, conflict barely present, the end always assured, the story goes the only place it could ever really go; nowhere.

Yet all is rescued by three stunningly brilliant performances. Everything Moran reduces to cliche, Kate Stanley Brennan’s Cork mother, Sophie Lenglinger’s English woman and Ebby O’Toole-Acheampong young woman resurrect and revitalise. Each owning the stage at key moments, making humour richer and the dark undercurrents of pain, shame, judgement and despair keenly felt. Even if Brennan’s ‘Roman’ accent roams from West Cork to Trenchtown and across the Yorkshire Dales at times you forgive it given the integrity of her performance. Throughout, the camaraderie and chemistry of the three strong women signify where the play’s real heart lies. Dialogue whisked along by Conall Morrison’s direction, with Moran credited as co-director, foregrounding character over story, where Moran's humanity and humour is best realised. Even as Laura Fajardo Castro’s functional set and Suzie Cummins’ lights look like an easy day at the office. Along with Neil O’Driscoll’s pale projections which suggest aspirations towards a movie.

If Afterwards, theatrically and themeatically, frequently underwhelms, its three central cast pump blood, sweat and tears through the plays clogged arteries. Moran’s song remaining the same, even as Brennan, O’Toole-Acheampong and Lenglinger sing it beautifully. Still, it always feels like a child coated in bubble wrap riding a tricycle on astroturf; playing it safe whilst thinking itself brave. The result a three star play elevated to a four star experience, courtesy of its five star performances.

Afterwards by Janet Moran, a Once Off production, co-presented with the Abbey Theatre and Dublin Fringe Festival runs at The Peacock Stage of The Abbey Theatre until Sept 14.

For more information visit The Abbey Theatre or Dublin Fringe Festival 2024