THEATRE: Birthday at the Royal Court
Published: 26 July, 2012
by SIPORA LEVY
Birthday
Royal Court Theatre
Imagine a world in the technologically advanced near future where men can have babies.
This is the premise of Joe Penhall’s latest play, Birthday, in which Ed and Lisa, a 30-something couple with fertility problems, reverse roles and take advantage of a new procedure that enables Ed to give birth to their second child.
Penhall, author of Blue Orange, wrings a great amount of emotion from this situation, and Stephen Mangan plays Ed with obvious relish.
Lines like “Don’t tell me about hormones, I’m like a Bernard Matthews turkey” and “I need my raspberry leaf tea” are delivered with brilliant comic timing.
It is in these early scenes of Ed’s indignation, gender politics and labour pains that Birthday is most entertaining.
But the play has a darker side as we learn that Ed and Lisa’s marriage has been devastated by a series of miscarriages and a traumatic caesarian section. Towards the end of the play Ed expresses his own rage about the human cost of becoming parents: “Nobody tells the truth about it because that’s against nature. To privately think it isn’t worth it – it’s taboo.”
This brave and bleak admission about the pain of parenting is at the heart of Birthday. This would be enough for most playwrights but Penhall also ambitiously attempts a savage critique of the failings of the NHS, which only muddles his play and dilutes the personal tragedy of its characters.
Despite some fine writing and acting, Birthday at times seems rushed, and the role of Lisa is under written.
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