Safe Place, A Play, a Pie and a Pint, Traverse

It's 4am and someone is knocking at Martine's door.  A stranger, a young woman seeking shelter and a safe place to be.  But why is she so reluctant to reveal details of her past, and what drew her to seek out this particular door?

Martine is a veteran of feminist activism, a weel kent figure in the national media, and write of an article in which she said she'd happily shelter women in her own home if they were escaping danger.  Rowan has a copy with her, challenging the older woman to live up to her rhetoric.  But she poses other challenges too, which will force Martine to confront and examine some of her own beliefs.

Then there's Nina, Martine's agent, who feels her client should be acting in the interests of her 'brand' as much as her beliefs.  Martine's going to have to decide where she stands....

With much of the script being used to explain the background to the conflict there's a sense of earnestness that pervades.  Nevertheless it's an entertaining fifty minutes that raises a lot of issues which deserve to be seen by a wider audience.

It's impossible to write more without giving away the main plot twist so SPOILER ALERT.  If you plan on going along you may want to stop reading now.

Martine is being labelled as a TERF and finding that her once prominent voice is being sidelined.  Rowan is a transgender woman who feels Martine's attitude denies her right to be considered a 'real' woman.  With Nina exemplifying commercial considerations there's a three way conflict of interest.  As suggested above, the writer, Clara Glynn, feels audiences may need an introduction to some of the issues being tackled, and that leads to too much of the dialogue sounding polemical.  It all feels a bit too time constrained to properly explore the subject and this really should be the seed of a full length drama.  But for now it does it's doing it's bit in promoting openness, understanding and acceptance, and gives a hint at how difficult life can be for trans people.

Jennifer Black is a wonderful Martine, both defensive and inquiring, conscious of her status in the feminist panoply, smarting from her recent rejections.  Shane Convery, in his first professional stage role, excels as Rowan, a self centred teenager who wants to change the world.

Defintely worth seeing, if a little frustrating to watch.