The Shedding of Skin

How do you present a play that deals with stories of violence and women’s suffering? Slick spectacle might feel inappropriate for such difficult material. Kabosh specialises in making work exploring the legacy of conflict. This new piece, directed by Paula McFetridge and recorded in Belfast’s Brian Friel Theatre, is deliberately unvarnished, allowing Vittoria Cafolla’s startlingly vivid text to inhabit your mind.

Set in a timeless limbo designed by Tracey Lindsay, The Shedding of Skin centres on three Furies, tasked with containing and recounting stories of women who died in war and conflict.

When they find Sam (Shannen McNeice) and are unsure if she’s dead or alive, they believe her arrival has been prophesied. The supernatural rules of this new arrival and her fate feel a little overwrought, and at times the Furies’ quarrels feel abstract and manufactured. Their need to retell their stories, while essential and painful, occasionally creates an opacity that conveys neither effectively.

There are sparks in the performances, from Vicky Allen, as the Eastern European fury Tereza, and Catriona McFeely, as the empathetic Sinéad. Louise Mathews convincingly plays an abusive policeman boyfriend.

The play’s power lies in the constellation of international horrors the women share, such as the young Bosnian teenager who’d rather watch people she knows die again than endure the abuse that follows. The lingering shadow cast by the IRA is also prominantly featured.

Your mind inevitably drifts toward women’s real-world suffering, which put into effect Kabosh’s mission to communicate such stories – but you hanker for some bolder statement to be made, or a retribution that doesn’t involve wading through horrors for eternity.