My show this evening was part of NST City’s Make It SO festival. I was sat in the studio theatre on this occasion and, having not been up here before, I remarked on what a good space it is to discover little gems of theatre.
Rachel O’Neill’s The Fasting Girl was one such gem, glittering with a fresh and new perspective on the theme of protests and hunger strikes. It told the tale of Eva, a young activist refusing to eat and only talking in ‘fairy’ tales.
As Eva’s mother understandably panics and despairs for her daughter’s health, she is joined by an eating disorder psychiatrist who is on a mission to not only help Eva, but also to understand her motivations.
Trudi Licence as Eva was a wonderful mix of whimsy and airiness but with a real bite to her when she begins to speak in her own way once again and I really found her performance both charming and engaging.
My main piece feedback would be that although I can commend both Kate Price and Heather Bradford, as the mother and Psychiatrist, I could not give them both independent feedback as their names were not mentioned in the play and only the character’s first names appeared in the programme. It would have been nice to know which actor played which part, but they both did a fabulous job inhabiting their characters that I cannot really fault them at all.
This evening’s performance was a rehearsed reading and usually I find that the scripts get in the way and can halt the performance. This didn’t happen on this occasion, however, as the show felt like more of an intimate performance than a reading, which was very enjoyable. A few times, the actors did stumble over each other’s lines as they went on, but this was totally forgivable as it was a very good rehearsed reading performance.
I would say that Rachel O’Neill’s production has a very bright future, and speaks volumes on the issues of climate change and our futures on the little blue orb we inhabit. I for one would love to see this show again, perhaps in a full length production. Congratulations to everyone involved.
