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Telegraph
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Two faintings a night: Inside the West End's most shocking show
It's a Thursday night outside the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End and a long line of people are queuing for the evening's performance of the smash hit play The Years, nominated for five Olivier awards. The atmosphere is charged with excitable apprehension. One young woman, in her early twenties, declaims 'abortion!' in a mock-dramatic way in front of her friends. Two older American men smile wryly. 'Let's see how many people are still standing by the end,' says one. It's fair to say that not everyone was. As has now become a common occurrence with The Years, directed and adapted by Eline Arbo from the French writer Annie Ernaux's memoir Les Années, the performance was stopped after 45 minutes. An audience member had fallen ill during a scene in which Romola Garai, playing Annie 3 (the five-strong female cast play the same character at different stages of her life, from 1941 to 2006) endures a back street abortion. Garai plays Annie at the start of the 1960s, a time when medical abortions were still illegal in France; her character initially attempts in vain to abort the foetus herself using a knitting needle, then visits a back-street nurse and miscarries at home. In this instance, the interruption occurred within seconds after Garai had described the procedure in detail and was lying on her back crying out in pain. In other performances, people have either fainted or requested to leave at the point when Garai stands up, smears blood over her legs and, in a breath-stilling moment, holds out her hands as though cupping the aborted foetus. Someone has been affected during the majority of performances; The Guardian also reported that the majority of fainters are men, although the theatre says that's not the case. The ushers have been given additional training to deal with audience responses and the theatre has employed an on-site medic. The scene is undeniably distressing, although it's also not especially graphic: one audience member described it to me as 'almost serene'. Yet many who have seen the show are questioning why it's having so great a physical impact so consistently. 'I don't understand why people who are squeamish are buying tickets,' muttered the woman sitting next to me. She was astonished that the show had stopped when it had. 'People have reacted before anything has happened.' As is now standard, British audiences for The Years receive a trigger warning when they buy tickets online, in this instance alerting them to 'blood' and 'a graphic depiction of abortion'. There are also a few discreet warnings on posters in the foyers of the theatre. Yet when the production was performed in The Netherlands, there were no such warnings and very few faintings. 'My experience is that there's more reactions than if you don't have these,' Arbo told the Financial Times. 'It's the theatre's way of giving an excuse for itself, but then you [the audience] are so aware of it that it enhances the feeling of uncomfortableness.' A 2023 study by the British Psychological Society found that not only did trigger warnings have 'a negligible impact on emotional reactions', but they were also more likely to prompt in people 'an anticipatory response'. 'I felt I was being primed to react,' one woman told me after the show. 'I kept wondering 'which actress is it going to be?' In some ways it took away from the story.' Everyone I spoke to for this piece defended trigger warnings as a necessary protection for those who need them; Arbo also defends them. Yet some people choose to ignore them. One man who saw it in the West End had no idea the show was routinely stopped and had not looked at the trigger warnings. When it happened he initially assumed someone had been taken ill for an entirely different reason. 'I had no anxiety about the scene and no visceral reaction,' he says. Does he have a view on why other men might be more affected? 'I can only speculate but it might be that some men might never have had the chance before to realise what [an abortion] means for women.' It's certainly still rare to see women's gynaecological experience both dramatised and emphasised in the way it is in The Years. 'We are very unused to seeing uterine blood within our culture,' argues another woman who also saw the production in the West End. 'It wasn't so long ago [in 2017] that sanitary towel manufacturers started using red liquid instead of blue in their adverts.' Abortions and periods, she says, remain a cultural taboo. Fainting is hardly a new phenomenon in theatre – audiences passed out in their droves at the Globe's blood splattered 2012 Titus Andronicus and, more recently during the West End production of A Little Life. Fainting is also good for business: during the 19th century, Grand Guignol theatres in Paris would put out the rumour that people were regularly passing out at shows, which in turn helped bring people in. Yet The Years doesn't fit easily into the standard spectacles of blood, gore and violence that tend to tip audiences over the edge. By any reasonable standard the amount of blood on view is relatively minor. Many of the people I spoke to mentioned they had seen far more gruesome events in other productions, in particular the West End production of A Little Life. 'That was far harder to watch because the violence in that wasn't self inflicted,' said one woman. What's more, in 2022, the Almeida staged Beth Steele's working-class family epic The House of Shades, which featured an excruciating abortion in which Anne-Marie Duff's character Constance coercively took a coat hanger to her late-term pregnant daughter Laura (Emma Shipp). The scene included a cry from the aborted foetus which Constance had stuffed in a bucket – I watched it in horror and have never forgotten it. The production had standard trigger warnings. A spokesperson for the Almeida confirms that there were no reported faintings. Compare this to The Years which has got to the point where audience expectation has become built into the experience of watching it. 'It's as though audiences see the scene beginning and their expectation [of what's about to take place] pushes them over the edge rather than anything they actually see,' said an English teacher. 'To be honest it reminded me of the Crucible,' she adds, referring to the Arthur Miller play about the 17th-century Salem witch trials in which a group of young girls become possessed by a form of mob hysteria. Professor Simon Wessely, a consultant psychiatrist at King's College Hospital, points out that there is a distinction between mass hysteria, now known as 'mass sociogenic illness', and 'collective behaviour'. 'MSI is contagious and spreads, whereas collective behaviour tends to be something that might be anticipated, and indeed the audience, exactly as can happen in a charismatic church, for instance,' he says. 'To the uninitiated it can look very frightening, but actually isn't at all, and in the end both the person who has experienced the abnormal behaviour and the congregation feel better for the experience.' This, of course, is not so dissimilar to the cathartic purpose of ancient Greek tragedy which set out to 'arouse terror and pity' in audiences as a means of purging such emotions. Except that many audience members have found the disruption to The Years annoying. 'Are people going now because of the sensationalism of it and if so, is that detracting from what, for many women in the US, in light of the overturning of abortion rights, is now their lived experience?' says one woman. Others have even wondered if the fainters are plants. One woman also questioned whether ushers have become too quick to respond to the smallest audience reaction. A spokesperson for the Harold Pinter Theatre denies that this is the case, and tells me the faintings are 'starting to slow down, with more productions taking place without incident.' Of course, no one can account for the subjective reaction of any given audience – many women will have experienced abortion or miscarriage; either are experiences that tend to be discussed much in public. 'I never think about my ectopic [pregnancy], but watching that scene brought it back,' one woman told me. She didn't feel faint but can understand why plenty might. 'The scene is about profound loss. [But on the other hand], peoples' responses to their own experiences and to those of others aren't always logical.'
The Guardian
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Fiddler on the Roof up for 13 Olivier awards and Romola Garai nominated twice in same category
Romola Garai has been nominated twice in the same category at this year's Olivier awards, with her performances in The Years and Giant both making the shortlist for best supporting actress. Those two plays have each picked up five nominations, while a revival of the musical Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air theatre leads the Oliviers race with a total of 13 nominations. That tally equals a record set by the musical Hamilton in 2018 for the most nominated show at the Oliviers. Garai, who has never previously been nominated for an Olivier, received two nods at once when the nominations were announced on Tuesday. She played a Jewish American publishing executive in Mark Rosenblatt's Giant, which explores author Roald Dahl's antisemitism and is also up for best new play and best director (Nicholas Hytner). John Lithgow, who starred as Dahl, is nominated for best actor and Elliot Levey is in the running for best supporting actor. Giant ran last year at the Royal Court and will transfer to the West End next month, without Garai in the cast. In The Years, based on Nobel prize-winner Annie Ernaux's memoir, Garai shares the central role with four other actors (including Gina McKee, also nominated for best supporting actress). The Years is also nominated for best director (Eline Arbo), best sound design (Thijs van Vuure) and best new play (for Arbo's adaptation, in an English version by Stephanie Bain). The Years was staged at the Almeida theatre and is now at the Harold Pinter theatre. It is Garai's last week in the production and she will be succeeded by Tuppence Middleton. Fiddler on the Roof, which was garlanded with five-star reviews last summer, transfers to the Barbican in May. It is nominated for set and costume design (both by Tom Scutt), lighting design (Aideen Malone), theatre choreographer (Julia Cheng), sound design (Nick Lidster), outstanding musical contribution (Mark Aspinall), director (Jordan Fein) and best musical revival. It also has nominations in every acting category for musicals, with nods for Adam Dannheisser who plays Tevye, the Jewish milkman (best actor), Lara Pulver (best actress), Liv Andrusier and Beverley Klein (up against each other for best actress in a supporting role) and Raphael Papo (best actor in a supporting role). The other nominees for best musical revival are Hello, Dolly!, Oliver! and Starlight Express, which won seven WhatsOnStage awards last month. The best new musical nominees are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, MJ the Musical, Why Am I So Single? and Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812. In the acting categories for plays, Indira Varma and Lesley Manville are each nominated for best actress for the same role, Jocasta, in different stagings of Oedipus. Manville's co-star Mark Strong and director Robert Icke are also nominated for their version at Wyndham's theatre, which is nominated for best revival. Varma is currently starring in an Old Vic production of Oedipus that has picked up nominations for best theatre choreographer (Hofesh Shechter, who also co-directed and composed the show) and sound design (Christopher Shutt). The other nominees for best actress are Heather Agyepong (Shifters), Rosie Sheehy (Machinal) and Meera Syal (A Tupperware of Ashes). Competing against Lithgow and Strong for best actor are Billy Crudup (Harry Clarke), Paapa Essiedu (Death of England: Delroy) and Adrien Brody, who made his West End debut in The Fear of 13. At the weekend, Brody was named best actor for a second time at the Academy Awards; he could now join that select group of actors who have won an Oscar and an Olivier. Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 has six nominations (including for actors Jamie Muscato, Chumisa Dornford-May and Maimuna Memon), while there are four each for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (including for leads John Dagleish and Clare Foster) and Oliver! (including for actor Simon Lipkin and choreographer Matthew Bourne). Imelda Staunton receives her 14th Olivier nomination this year, with a nod for best actress in a musical for Hello, Dolly! at the Palladium. Her co-star Andy Nyman is nominated for best supporting actor in a musical, on a shortlist including Tom Xander for Mean Girls, adapted from the film. The Devil Wears Prada, also based on a hit movie, has one nomination with Amy Di Bartolomeo recognised for her portrayal of the ambitious Emily. There are three nominations for MJ the Musical (which won four Tony awards in 2022), including for Myles Frost who plays Michael Jackson. Lauren Drew is nominated for her comical role as Celine Dion in the Titanic spoof Titanique, with co-star Layton Williams nominated for his supporting characters in the show (including an iceberg). The nominations were introduced on Tuesday by Nicole Scherzinger and Tom Francis, who won best actress and best actor for Sunset Boulevard at last year's Oliviers. The pair, covered in stage gore from the final scene of that musical (now playing on Broadway), said they were 'bloody excited' by the recognised talents. This year's ceremony will take place on 6 April at the Royal Albert Hall in London, hosted by actors Beverley Knight and Billy Porter. Established in 1976, the Olivier awards are overseen by the Society of London Theatre. The winners are chosen by a team of industry figures, stage luminaries and theatre-loving members of the public.
New York Times
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
An Abortion Scene Gets Theater Audiences Talking, and Fainting
About 40 minutes into a recent performance of 'The Years' in London, Stephanie Schwartz suddenly felt ill and had to put her head between her legs. Onstage at the Harold Pinter Theater, the actress Romola Garai was holding two knitting needles while portraying a young Frenchwoman trying to give herself an abortion. The scene was set in 1964, a time when medical abortions were illegal in France, and Garai's character wasn't ready for motherhood. Schwartz, 39, said she had started feeling faint as Garai's character, Annie, described her attempt to carry out the procedure in stark, if brief, detail. But then, Schwartz recalled, there was a commotion in the balcony above. An audience member had actually passed out. Since opening last summer for a short run at the Almeida Theater, then again last month on the West End, 'The Years' has been the talk of London's theaterland. That has as much to do with audience reactions to the six-minute abortion scene as the near-universal critical acclaim that the production and its five actresses received for their powerful portrayal of one woman's life. While fainting theatergoers are nothing new — several passed out over the onstage torture in Sarah Kane's 'Cleansed' at the National Theater almost a decade ago — the sheer number keeling over at 'The Years' stands out. Sonia Friedman, the show's producer, said that at least one person has fainted at every performance despite a warning to ticketholders. Friedman said that she realized the scene's power, especially at a time when many women, particularly in the United States, fear a rollback of reproductive rights. After failing to carry out the home abortion, Annie describes her visit to a backstreet clinic, then, later, miscarrying the fetus at home. Still, Friedman said she worried that the scene had overtaken discussion about a play that portrayed women's lives in all their 'power, pain and joy.' 'What should dominate the discussion,' Friedman said, 'is, 'Why has it taken this long for such a work about women, by women, to be onstage?'' Based on a 2008 autobiographical book of the same title by Annie Ernaux, the 2022 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 'The Years' is an attempt to not just capture a woman's life, but also show France's shift toward sexual liberation and consumerism. Eline Arbo, the play's director, said that, when she read the book, she immediately wanted to bring its blend of emotional, political and social history to the stage, even if Ernaux's writing contained no dialogue. 'Everybody thought I was crazy,' Arbo said. She didn't think twice about including the abortion scene. It was such a key moment in Ernaux's life, Arbo said (Ernaux almost bled to death), adding that it was vital to remind audiences of the importance of legal abortion. Garai said she performed the abortion scene when she auditioned for the show, and had felt it was a 'great, accurate depiction' of something that many women experienced when abortion was illegal. 'It's their bodies, their histories,' Garai said. During rehearsals, Garai recalled Arbo mentioning that a handful of audience members had fainted when the director staged the show in the Netherlands. But Garai said she had dismissed the possibility of similar reactions in London. British theatergoers, Garai recalled thinking, were used to sitting through bloody productions of Shakespeare. Yet, two days after the play opened at the Almeida Theater, the stage manager rushed onstage mid-performance and stopped the show. Someone had fainted. The cast feared they had traumatized a woman who had experienced an abortion, but it soon became clear there was no pattern: Men were fainting, as well as women. Perhaps the summer heat was a contributing factor? But now that the play was running on the West End, during a bitterly cold winter, the fainting was 'even worse,' Garai said. (The run concludes April 19.) Arbo said that her best theory for the reactions was that the show's stripped-back style left room for audiences to imagine the abortion themselves, and so increased the scene's intensity. Really, though, she said, she had no idea why West End audiences were fainting. 'Do you have an answer?' she asked. 'I don't!' During a recent performance, the show, meant to run almost two hours without intermission, was stopped twice for about five minutes so that ushers could attend to flustered theatergoers. Other audience members said they had mixed feelings about those interruptions. Mary Tyler, 65, a retired management consultant, sighed when the play was first halted. 'You are joking,' she said. 'That is so rude to the performers.' When the play stopped a second time, Chi Ufodiama, 35, a public relations worker, said she was sympathetic if someone who had experienced abortion was struggling, but she was 'suspicious' that the pauses were a deliberate part of the show. (Garai dismissed that notion: 'Why would we do that?') During each pause, Garai walked to the back of the stage and formed a circle with the other four woman playing Annie at different points in her life: Anjli Mohindra, Harmony Rose-Bremner, Gina McKee and Deborah Findlay. Garai said the cast had decided to remain onstage partly to signal to the audience that the play was about women's communal experience. 'We're all here to tell the rest of this story together,' she said. Once ushers had ensured the audience member was all right (they sometimes provide bottles of water or medical assistance), Garai returned to the front of the stage and continued acting as intensely as before, without missing a word. It was no different than having a director interrupting her mid-rehearsal, Garai said. Within minutes of enduring the abortion, her character had moved on from that moment: She gets married, becomes a mother, and soon the play was racing through a divorce and other scenes that shed light on women's lives. Some were comedic, like a moment when McKee, playing Annie in middle age, attends her first aerobics class. Other scenes were more passionate, including one in which Findlay, portraying Annie in her 50s and 60s, describes an affair with a younger man. For Garai, that May-December romance was as strong a statement as the abortion. Garai said it showed that older women 'not only can desire, but can be objects of desire,' adding she had never seen such a relationship on a London stage before. Even for Schwartz, the audience member who felt she came close to fainting, the play's broader messages struck home. She said certain moments made her ponder what past generations of women lived through, as well as reflect on her own life experiences and those of her friends. The play was 'such a relatable depiction of womanhood,' Schwartz added, and that meant it had to include the abortion scene, too.
