About 500
London, UNITED KINGDOM - This play was sent to us by the playwright and director of the piece, Simona Hughes. Recorded on Zoom with a small group of wonderful actors, this new and relevant play was supposed to be performed at the 2020 Vault Festival in London from March 18-22 before the entire event was cancelled due to social distancing. Please give it a watch! Who doesn’t love a new play?!
From the submission:
“About 500 -the average number of viable eggs a woman releases in her lifetime- explores the finite nature of female fertility and the affect that this uniquely female pressure has on contemporary women and their relationship with time. The piece experiments with form to create a visceral experience of ‘egg time’, an altered, dislocated, accelerated time endured by women when battling against biological clocks. It also uses bold imagery and documentary material to tell the story of one woman’s race against the clock, as she struggles to conceive in a world where time is already a precious economic commodity.
The average age of first conception for women in the UK is now 30 and climbing steadily. However, the cliff edge of female fertility remains brutal, dropping dramatically at 35, with the result that more and more women find themselves involuntarily childless in their 40s, which in turn has a significant, and seriously overlooked, impact on their mental health. The fundamental disparity between a punishingly finite female fertility and a potentially infinite male fertility remains an issue that our society has failed to address, and something of a blind spot for feminism.”
CAST
Clem… Stephanie Fuller
Luke… Dickon Farmer
Ruth… Joanna Nevin
For more information on ‘About 500’, visit the official website, or follow them on social media!