There’s quite a bit of feminist literature out there speculating how the world would be different if men were the ones who had to give birth. Joe Penhall’s darkly hysterical play Birthday at the Royal Court takes us to the near future where science has allowed men to become pregnant. Instead of making the birthing process more accommodating, Penhall manages to depict child birth as a traumatic and life altering experience for all involved – mother and father alike.
We meet Ed, played pitch perfect by the brilliant Stephen Mangan, big bellied and emotional in an NHS hospital room with his wife Lisa, played with wonderful exasperation by Lisa Dillon, who is now the breadwinner. It’s a highly self-reflexive role reversal, as Lisa has already had a child and is unable to have anymore. Thus, Ed has stepped up to the challenge. Hormonal and in pain, Ed’s ever growing hysteria slowly encompasses the whole play.
There was a talk back the night is went and there were some interesting things brought up – most of which made me think about text analysis and theatre criticism and reception in an altered way. Throughout the play both Ed and Lisa moan about the ineptitude of the NHS, thus it’s easy to classify this as British play critiquing the NHS. Someone had asked Penhall if this was the case, he replied no. It could take place anywhere and that the criticism of the NHS was a universal one when you’re going through a difficult pregnancy. There was also a question about a scene that talks about the view of prison across from their hospital room – if it had any symbolic significance. Penhall’s answer – when his wife was pregnant their hospital room had a view of a prison.
Although I do think the attack of the NHS was a bit much and was definitely thinking that this was also a comment on the health care system, I can see Penhall’s impetus. Because his wife’s two child-births were so traumatizing for the both of them, he was simply writing from his experience. Write what you know – a common saying for writers – and Penhall has done just that. He’s taken his real life experience, the frustration, the trauma, the hysteria and has turned it into a wonderful “what-if” scenario. By taking from a very personal experience, he’s turned a far-fetched idea into a darkly humorous reality.
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