Elaine Murphy’s richly entertaining and accomplished debut play Little Gem, playing at the Traverse, places women firmly in the foreground; and if its stance is a shade more predictable than Muriel Spark’s, it still creates three characters to remember and cherish.
Little Gem is a triple monologue of the kind in which Irish theatre excels; and it tells the story of a critical year in the lives of Kay, Lorraine and Amber, three generations of the same Dublin family, as they stand on the brink of widowhood for Kay, new love for Lorraine, and teenage motherhood for Amber.
On one hand, these are ordinary heterosexual women, all three of their lives shaped by their relationships with men. What’s clear, though, is that they are no longer waiting around to be told by men what it is they should want, or how they should express those desires. Some of this is standard soap-opera stuff for an age in which women increasingly have to “do it for themselves”; but Murphy delivers it with terrific conviction, and three stunning performances from Sarah Greene as Amber, Hilda Fay as Lorraine, and the wonderful Anita Reeves as Kay.
Until 30 August; today 5pm.
