U.S. Premier of The Irish Play A Girl is a Half-formed Thing

The Corn Exhange, a leading independent theater co. from Ireland, adapted Eimar McBride's award winning debut novel of the same name.  The 1 woman, a act play is performed courageously by Aoife Duffin who assumes multiple characters.   However, this ambitious production falls short of conveying the sensitive & damaged young girl.  Duffin's central character is that of the young girl born into a poor family.  She has an older brother & devoutly Catholic mother.  The father abandons the family before the girl is born & shortly after the older brother undergoes neurosurgery that renders him brain damaged.  Duffin plays the brother she adores, defends & at the same time feels embarrassed by him.  She also loves her mother who she portrays as fraught with hardships & lacking in tenderness towards   her.  The grandfather's harshness towards both her & her mother come across boldly.  Duffin also portrays her uncle who sexually abuses from adolescence through early adulthood.  Having read the powerful novel, I empathized with her vulnerability & innocence that were destoryed by her leacherous uncle.  The demands of the play requires Duffin to morph from 1 character to another instantaneously.  This was not always done successfully.  There's lot of hysterics & wailing that grab the audience.  The dual portrayal of girl & her uncle engaging in sex was not compelling.  The nuanced confusion & innocence  of her seduction was lacking.  A Girl is a Half-formed Thing was an oppressive production but it's missing empathy for the side of the girl's malleability turned self-desstructive from neglect & longing.