Little Gem
Award winning play performed by The irish Society of Tanzania. Effectively three related confessional monologues by three women, three generations of the same family. One of the actresses was also in the Society’s previous play, Bold Girls, which I saw early last year.
The actors needed a few minutes to get into their roles but, once this is done, all put down reasonable performances. The lack of men in the play, all three women’s stories to quite some extent having to deal with the influence of men in their lives, is interesting, but doesn’t add to the dramatic value and, perhaps, even takes away from it.
The ending, with the break in style, is sudden and surprising, but feels rather artificial.
The author, Elaine Murphy, confessed that the three women in the play are composites of everyday women she’s met over the course of her life. It’s quite impressive, then, that Murphy managed to make this play somewhat interesting. Most people have very little interesting to offer.