Salford Arts Theatre
The Greater Manchester Fringe is back for another year. The festival started on 1st July, and runs throughout the month at various venues around Greater Manchester. And, once again, I’m going to be reviewing a selection of the productions on offer for this blog, and also for The Festival Show on North Manchester FM.
Like last year, my festival started at the Salford Arts Theatre (which you might remember from previous years is one of my favourite venues). On Friday 1st July, I was there to review Pill, a theatre performance from Blue Balloon Theatre. The radio version of this review will be going out on The Festival Show on Friday 8th July, but here’s the blog version…
Pill is written and performed by Rebecca Phythian. It’s an autobiographical one-act play, told through monologues and physical performance by Phythian, who is joined on stage by Adam Martyn who takes on the dual roles of Doctor and Boyfriend. After the performance, there was a Q&A with Phythian and Martyn as well.
The ‘pill’ of the play’s title is the contraceptive pill, and the play explores Phythian’s experiences, after being prescribed the combined pill at nineteen, of side effects that damaged her mental and physical health, as well as the difficulties she faced when trying to get help and support for these.
In her expository monologues, Phythian gives a potted account of how she came to be prescribed oral contraception and how quickly she started to experience side effects. It’s tempting to say here that she gives an account of how she chose to be on oral contraception, as technically this is a medication of choice. However, as the play makes clear from the start, this is – particularly for young women – not always an informed choice. The combined factors of pressure from a boyfriend and lack of clear guidance on side effects of the pill are stated bluntly in the early part of the play. Phythian’s matter-of-fact delivery of this encourages members of the audience (many of whom will have been in the same position) to relate.
While there is a little bit of background given as to the history and pharmacology of the pill, this is only offered as context. The real meat of the performance lies in Phythian’s re-enactment of the spiralling descent into depression and reduced libido, and fear of high blood pressure, weight gain and blood clots.
The standout scene that encapsulates this focus comes in the middle of the play. Martyn plays the Doctor, sitting behind a desk and laptop. Phythian plays herself, re-enacting an appointment with her GP in which she asked for help or advice with the side effects she was experiencing. The Doctor responds only to questions about which brand of combined pill she is taking, and whether she should be prescribed a different brand. The issue of the depression Phythian is experiencing is only addressed in a cursory fashion, with a refusal to prescribe anti-depressants as they’re deemed ‘unnecessary’ and a request that she continues the counselling.
But the scene is then replayed – this time, Phythian’s body language and demeanour is different, more visibly anxious and with a creeping sense of desperation. Martyn’s performance remains the same, his responses repeated word-for-word and his body language unchanged.
And then the scene is replayed – again and again – with Phythian becoming more desperate, angry at times, beseeching at others. Her words and tone change over the repetitions, like a crescendo of frustration at not being listened to. Martyn does not change, remaining impassive and unmoved by the increasingly worrying descriptions of Phythian’s state of mind. There’s a painful irony, as Martyn’s repeated explanation of why anti-depressants aren’t necessary includes the line, ‘You’re making eye contact with me’, when he himself rarely looks up from his laptop.
From here, Phythian explores some of the social side effects – such as a deterioration in her relationship (with Martyn returning to play a bemused boyfriend struggling to offer sympathy and support), and the pressure of dealing with a set of side effects – and, sadly, I’m not going to call them ‘severe’ side effects, as Phythian is really only focusing on the common or expected side effects of oral contraception (weight gain, mood shifts, loss of libido); ‘severe’ side effects are blood clots, stroke and death – that are continually brushed under the carpet.
While Pill is an autobiographical piece, it is also a provocative one. It is clear throughout that the intention is to provoke conversation. It’s true, there may be members of the audience who think that these side effects are all known quantities – perhaps they did have it all explained to them by a GP when they were first prescribed, or perhaps they made the choice not to take oral contraception in the first place – the point that is made very clearly and forcefully through the performances here is that so many people don’t know the risks. Or don’t feel able to weigh up risk against benefit in a meaningful way. Pill asks the question of how this can be addressed. How can we talk about this more?
The climactic moment of the play comes when Phythian strips her outerwear off to reveal words written across her body in black marker pen – ‘weight loss’, ‘weight gain’, ‘depression’, ‘high blood pressure’, etc. It’s an unambiguous visual metaphor, and it was clear from the Q&A afterwards that it was one that resonated with the audience.
For me, the real strength of Pill lay in the performances. Phythian is assured in her performance, conveying the desperation, frustration and anger with a compelling mixture of confrontation and vulnerability. She is believable and relatable, and it’s almost possible to believe some of the monologues are off-the-cuff, conversation starters (rather than a carefully scripted performance). When she addresses the audience, visibly tense and frightened, with words written across her body, it’s incredibly moving. As an older woman in the audience, I felt almost protective towards the woman before me on the stage – and this is part of the show’s intention. Again, how can we talk about this more? What role do we play, and what responsibility do we have towards younger generations of women (and, as an audience member pointed out in the Q&A, to trans men, transmasculine and nonbinary people)?
Overall, then, this was a strong start to the festival for me. Excellent performances, a well-written script, and a provocative subject matter made for a very thought-provoking play. I hope to see Pill develop further, as Phythian hinted at some future plans in the Q&A after the show. I’ll be watching with interest for these!
Pill was on at Salford Arts Theatre on 1st and 2nd July, as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe. It will also be on at the Fuse International Festival in London on 8th July. For the full programme of Greater Manchester Fringe shows on this year, please visit the festival website.
