Every Second

Vanessa Bates' play opens up a dialogue on very sensitive issues. She has the ability to address the problems that infertility can cause in relationships with humour, sensitivity and candour. The script is taut and incisive, leaving little room to be trite or clichéd.

Wit Incorporated have taken up all these elements and make great efforts to bring out the various contours of the play. This is achieved by some strong performances portraying the four characters whose lives are beset by the struggle to have children. Jen (Lansy Feng) and Bill (Richard Mealey) deal with the constant indignities of IVF treatment while Meg (Madeleine Magee Carr) and Tim (Riley Nottingham) completely focus their lives on the quest to get pregnant. They resort to all kinds of reputable and suspect remedies but both couples crumble under the unbearable pressure their pursuit to become parents creates. 

Magee Carr often shines during the more dramatic moments of the story while Feng is at her best during the more comical exchanges. Mealey looks more comfortable when delivering humour and Nottingham focuses on the seriousness of his persona. The individual forte of each performer is made evident, and this creates good chemistry on stage.

The play infiltrates some of the most sexually intimate moments in the lives of the couples and the performers effectively capture the vulnerability and fragility that characterise their roles. This is often nicely contrasted with their ability to deliver the comedy of their episodes of psychological decline. Sometimes these shifts in tone take some time to settle in, or could be sharper, and the scene transitions can sometimes interfere with this momentum.

The realism of the set and the traverse stage tends to create challenges that could be more effectively exploited to highlight aspects such as the divide between the two couples and the moments when they depart from reality. However, this does not detract from the drama of the play. The sperm dance incorporated into the performance is a brave and audacious tactic which pays off by adding a very quirky and light-hearted interlude. 

The intensity of the intimate content of this play is undoubtedly quite demanding, and this production often rises to the challenge.

Patricia Di Risio 

Photographer: Jack Dixon-Gunn.