Mark Ravenhill, a young English author who has made a mark with work of stark social realism (e.g. Shopping and F. . .ing), won a Most Promising Playwright Award (from the Evening Standard in 1998) for Handbag. Again, he doesn't pull his thematic punches, and there is much in his play to challenge the fainthearted.
It opens with a lesbian couple and two male gays collaborating in parenting a child. One of the gays provides the sperm, and one of the women is the vehicle for artificial insemination. They all intend to rear the child with care and tenderness. But even while the woman is in labour, one of the men has met a male prostitute, and is in the throes of oral sex and buggery when the child is born; contact with the event is maintained by mobile phone. This causes complications later, and the male couple break up. A drop-out girl also arrives on the scene, to become a kind of nanny for the baby. It is all far from idyllic, and heading for disaster.
There is a deal of crudity and even sadism built into the plot, and a sort of time-warp linking the past and present, which is quite unconvincing. The attempted blend of comedy and tragedy does not generally work well. Good acting from Kate Pierce, Anna Swords-Murphy, Adam Goodwin and Yvonne O'Hara, with something a bit extra by Pat O'Toole and Paul Keeley, offer some redemption, and Peter Hussey's direction with Janie Murphy's effectively simple set design, are an asset.
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