Friday night at the Hampstead Theatre was our more regular habit, but the Carlos Perez concert had enticed us to the SBC the night before, so we plugged for the Saturday night for this play.
Probably just as well, because this was a truly troubling play that would not have worn well rushing to the theatre at the end of a stressful week. It poses as a documentary drama about Donna McAuliffe, a woman convicted of murdering her infant children. The story resembles in many ways the tragic Sally Clark case.
It was extremely well done and I am very glad we saw it. We had enjoyed Dennis Kelly’s writing before, which was the main reason we booked it. Hampstead was patchy to say the least in that era but the Dennis Kelly stuff was a rare exception and this one proved no exception to the exception.
Lyn Gardner spoke highly of it in the Guardian – click here.
As did Ian Shuttleworth for the FT – click here.
Philip Fisher in British Theatre Guide was less sure – click here.
Everyone agreed that Abigail Davies was marvellous.
I have the playtext for this one; unusual for the Hampstead but might well be worth a re-read, there was a lot going on in this play.