Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Aoife Duffin.
The stigma of certain actions undertaken when young never truly leave you, certain deeds done against you are always apt to bark in the dark and the misery or the grief reaped is enough to send you spiralling if there is nothing to stay your hand or guide you away from the water’s edge. In a time when particular individuals in Ireland could almost get away with anything because of who they were and what they represented, Eimear McBride’s A Girl Is A Half Formed Thing is a play of terrifying beauty and compassion.
Adapted for the stage by Annie Ryan, Aoife Duffin’s portrayal of innocence robbed by a succession of people’s interpretations and betrayals is not only powerful, it resonates in the bleakness and moments of pure joy, it comes off the stage as if it were one of the most alive obsessions to take shape before the audience’s eyes and for 80 minutes is to be fixated upon, battled with and ultimately held close as defining piece of Irish story telling as anything that comes through in the seminal work by James Joyce, Dubliners.
It is the feeling of helplessness that is collectively experienced by the audience, that no matter the outcome of the girl in question, the audience are voyeurs to the life untangling before them and it is to the absolute credit of Annie Ryan as writer and director and the absorbing Aoife Duffin that the helplessness felt is transformed into complete admiration. Aoife Duffin is an absolute natural as she takes all the charm and grace from every character, all the disturbing notions laid down by those out to abuse their position and trust and makes them fascinating and brutal; a wonderful piece of acting at its most assured.
A Girl Is A Half Formed Thing is a play that demonstrates the endeavour of human life when used, its natural progression from bitter taste to fixation and one in which the world never sees unless it lives it and empathises with the victim.
A play of importance, a production which brings the very best of dramatic solitude to the forefront of the audience’s thoughts, clinical and beautiful, A Girl Is A Half Formed Thing is theatre of great social importance and should not be missed.
Ian D. Hall