Very much an anti-romanticised view of suicide, She focus on the last days of a young woman following the break-up of a relationship. Written and directed by Lee James Broadwood, and performed by Penny Tomai, She introduces us to a lone woman who is dishevelled and past caring about her appearence. The only thing that is of importance to her is what she’s ‘lost’.

I have to admit, before watching this production, I did wonder if if would be anything like Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis. In truth, She has a Lorcian flavour with the surface level expressions of grief and longing that wouldn’t be out of place in Blood Wedding or The House of Bernarda Alba.

There are times where with the projections there are poetic allusions to death and how counterintuitively, some forms of life springs from this. However, this is in stark contrast to what the protagonist divulges, with the depths of self-abasement to which she has succumbed to.

At first the deliberate ambiguity of language at the beginning of the play suggests the lover and best friend who the woman has lost, is the same person. However, later we find out they are two separate people. Why exactly both are absent is the crux of the play, though the gap in audience’s knowledge mirrors the protagonist’s until the very end.

She‘s subject matter and its approach to it won’t be everyone’s ‘cup of tea’, but it takes ‘big swings’ with its risks. If the play has one ‘warning’, to quote Suzanne Collins: “It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.”

© Michael Davis 2024

She ran at the Bread & Roses Theatre from 9th to 13th January 2024.