The New York Times: Onstage at the Harold Pinter Theater, the actress Romola Garai was portraying a young Frenchwoman trying to give herself an abortion with a knitting needle. The scene was set in 1964, a time when medical abortions were illegal in France, and Garai’s character wasn’t ready for motherhood.
2 comments:
Wow, The Years may be one of the most intense productions I have ever heard about. Abortion is definitely something that should be depicted in this show, since it is such a powerful scene and portrays the real life experiences of so many women, even though abortion has traditionally been somewhat of a taboo and not shown in detail in a production.
I think it's curious that the immediate fear was that the people who would faint during the performance were women who had gotten abortions before and were traumatized. I felt that it makes more sense for men to faint during such a scene, due to the fact that they have not experienced an abortion personally.
Overall, I'm impressed by the mental strength, fortitude, and determination of the actors to put on this difficult and impressive performance. The Years is something that I would go to see, and I think some of my family may be interested as well, but a few of them would definitely end up fainting during the performance. It may be better to just send them this article instead, and save a trip to the hospital.
I feel like people passing out during a show is both a blessing and a curse, the production team knows that they have done such a good job that the show is causing such strong emotional reactions, but on the other hand the amount of people passing out or feeling weak could derail a show in order to allow for propper medical treatment. I think that scaling back the scene would be beneficial as to not cause so many audience members to pass out. If the scene was able to be watched with less interruptions it might be better for the show overall, leading to an unbroken viewing experience. It is important that we continue to tell stories like this even with the need to potentially tone down the intense scenes. I wonder how this show would be received by an american audience. Would there be just as much fainting, would the show even be allowed to have a run in America’s current political climate?
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