Review: About 500 - A Woman’s Race Against Time by Simona Hughes at King’s Head Theatre 19 - 23 April 2022

‘About 500 considers the narratives we need to address in society urgently’ ★★★★

A screen on the wall counts down from 500.

A woman enters with pockets full of white, chalky balls and starts to easily, playfully dispense them, even throwing to audience members. She starts to recognise that she is depleting her stock way too quickly.

An audio recording from an interview is played: a woman commenting that she had spent most of her life trying not to get pregnant, and now that she wants to get pregnant, it’s harder than she thought.

About 500 finely parallels the story of one woman struggling to have a child with brilliant audio and visual components to help understand a universal concern, with thoughtful direction by writer-director SIMONA HUGHES.

Clem (deftly performed by STEPHANIE FULLER ) is a successful professional woman, who gets her dream job at age 34. She meets Luke (DICKON FARMAR) by chance at a friend’s wedding after he rejected her on match.com because she didn’t want children. But there’s chemistry between them and they hit it off. He still wants children; and in time, so does she. Very much.

If one aspect didn’t ring quite true it is that while Luke manages the deterioration of his mother’s mind, his relationship with Clem holds surprisingly strong despite the demands and emotional roller coaster of going through IVF. Becoming pregnant is not as easy, even with modern science - and the more it isn’t working out, the harder the relationship often becomes between the couple. Luke seems almost too good to be true.

It is Clem’s reliable female friendship with Ruth (JOANNA NEVIN) that is most central and how she behaves when her one ‘safe’ friend becomes unexpectedly pregnant is indicative of where Clem ends up emotionally. As time moves on, Clem analyses the counter on the screen and she desperately grabs at the white balls on the floor: a visual and poignant expression of the pain she feels as she tries to beat her biological clock. We hear more anecdotes from women interviewed about their fertility struggles.

About 500 possesses the emotional tremor of Yerma (Federico Garcia Lorca, and recently Simon Stone) and Avalanche (Julia Leigh) yet without the histrionics. The latter make for good drama, but don’t often express the quieter, solitary suffering of women whose dreams of having a child of their own are difficult or impossible to come to pass.

The staging is simple with blocks moved around the stage and items pulled out from within, including balloons and party items. The show finishes by playing out two possible outcomes, cleverly using one of the party balloons to indicate when Clem is pregnant and the ending when she is not.

There are stories of motherhood, perhaps not enough. Even fewer stories share the challenges to getting to parenthood, though clearly it is the experience of many. About 500 considers the narratives we need to address in society urgently. The counter works its way down, counting the number of ovulations a woman has, her chance to have a child reducing each month. Our society needs to reduce the number of people who are suffering the loss of their greatest desire.

About 500 - A Woman’s Race Against Time

At King’s Head Theatre / Springboard Festival



About 500 website: https://about500.com/

Written by Simona Hughes

Performed by Stephanie Fullier, Joanna Nevin, Dickon Farmar

Directed by Simona Hughes

Dramaturg: Melissa Dunne

Movement Director: Mandy Gordon

Designer: Nic Farr

Composer/Sound: Jack Baxter

Lighting Designer: Ryan Day

Producer: Burcu Conn

Reviewer

Mariam Mathew is an alumna of Guardian critic Mark Fisher’s theatre criticism course and an aspiring playwright.