BIRTHDAY
Royal Court Theatre, London SW1
Opened 28 June, 2012
****

In a way it is unfortunate that just as Equity voice their protests that subsidised theatres offer too few roles for women, the Royal Court opens a four-hander in its main house which features only one man. And he’s pregnant.
    
Joe Penhall’s latest play begins with the appearance of a simple role-reversal, as high-strung Ed and too-ostentatiously-solicitous Lisa await the midwife’s arrival in their hospital room, shortly after Ed’s labour has been induced. However, it soon becomes apparent that this is not the beginning and end of the matter, as with that 1970s family-planning poster of an abdominally bulging young chap. In this alternative present, men can be implanted to carry (ectopically) and bear (by C-section) children as an alternative to female pregnancy: as an affirmation of gay family lifestyle, for instance, or as here because Lisa can no longer do so, following complications at a previous delivery.
    
Consequently, although Penhall – and director Roger Michell and his cast – have some fun with mixing and matching gender stereotypes in this area, it is only one part of the picture. The same-only-different perspective refreshes what would otherwise be rather hackneyed personal stresses, as both Ed and Lisa consider the viability of their relationship. And although it may or may not have been Penhall’s primary intention, the here-and-gone midwife and the registrar who doesn’t appear until halfway through serve as an illustration at once novel and trenchant of the strain under which NHS resources and structures are being placed. We are clearly working on several levels here.
    
The part of Ed could have been written for Stephen Mangan: he always seems to embody the assorted unreasonablenesses of the modern bloke whilst still being somehow endearing. Lisa Dillon has a plateful of a role as Lisa, who has it all (family, career) except a core component (biology) and is deeply conflicted as to whether she wants any of it. Llewella Gideon and Louise Brealey as the medical staff are more simplistically written, presenting one facet (brusque midwife, overworked junior registrar) then softening in order for a payoff. But, as with last year’s Haunted Child which I championed more than some of my colleagues, Penhall allows us to put the pieces together as we please. Ninety minutes of entertainment or a deceptive think-piece, it’s still a healthy, bouncing bundle.

Written for the Financial Times.

Copyright © Ian Shuttleworth; all rights reserved.

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