UTTERLY GRIPPING AND DISTURBING
Extremities (New Theatre,
by American writer William Mastrosimone, first produced in 1982, is an utterly gripping and disturbing play about rape and the consequences for the woman involved. And it’s given a compelling production. No punches are pulled, no neat ending is arranged, and the audience is forced to think its own way through a horrible ordeal. Marjorie (a wonderfully convincing Lisa Tyrrell) is relaxed at home when Raul (Fiack Kunz) barges into her room and attempts a sadistic rape. It’s a deeply unpleasant scene, that puts your emotions through the wringer. Marjorie overcomes him, and ties him up. Her instincts are to take savage revenge, till her flatmates, (Sarah O’Rourke and Mallory Adams) arrive. But how do you prove an attempted rape in your home when you’ve no obvious injuries and the supposed attacker is the one who’s doing all the suffering? What would a jury make of the slim evidence, and what would the future situation be for Marjorie and her flatmates who witnessed nothing, but can see the condition of the attacker? Raul is a manipulative slimeball who plays a wicked game of psychological warfare with the flatmates to undermine Marjorie’s story. She, the victim, slowly becomes the possible villain. This beautifully written play gets a powerfully dramatic, production with great ensemble performances, but it’s the uncomfortably realistic possibilities in the situation that stay with you afterwards. Runs until November 10.