A pandemic exposes deep social injustices in Emma Donoghue’s new play, set in Dublin during the Spanish influenza outbreak of 1918. Over three tumultuous days in a maternity hospital, staff attempt to cope with emergency births. One teenager, Mary (Ciara Byrne), has no inkling of what childbirth involves; Honor (Úna Kavanagh), a destitute, unmarried woman, is delirious; and the complaints of the middle-class Della (India Mullen) provide much of the initial comedy.
Adapting her own novel for the stage, Donoghue has crammed in multiple themes and detailed information: not only on the deadly impact of fever, but also on the political and social upheaval in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising – and the balance isn’t always successful.
