Synopsis
Birthday
$15.99 Published by Methuen
1 Male 3 Female
A bold and bloody comedy set around a hospital bed in the excruciating hours before birth every last groan, gasp of gas and groping internal examination
Only this time it is the male lead, Ed, who sports the bump and backless gown and spends the play being prodded and probed while his wife, Lisa, sponges his forehead and scolds the nurses
Ed and Lisa's unusual circumstances make for an unsettling and satisfyingly comic sequence of events that tests their relationship to the core
It also raises intrinsic questions about the nature of birth and renewal, fear and isolation - subverting the received gender roles to darkly comic and disturbing effect