24Weeks @ Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose

Could you risk everything, really, for yourself and those you love? Laura Walker’s 24Weeks – set in a flatshare bathroom the morning after a particularly raucous party – dives into this question head on.

This fast-paced, one-hour production lays bare the thorny ambiguity of a world where any and all abortion is completely illegal. As bass and beats hum through the walls, we watch Faye (Katie Pedelty) and Georgia (LJ Williams) crowd around their friend Becca (Erin Jederon-Hogg), as they collectively tread the fine line between morality and legality, between altruism and a deeper, at times darker, desire for self-preservation.

24Weeks is palpably brimming with possibility. It is an example of the sort of nascent talent that institutions like the Fringe have a duty to encourage, as well as to nurture. Produced in partnership with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and Engender Scotland, among others, it is undoubtedly a timely and important piece of theatre that has clearly been well-researched. Yet, whilst the play does give an engaging insight into a world dominated by increasingly oppressive anti-abortion policies, there is a sense that it has not fully grasped, or tapped into, its own powerful potential.  

Whilst the ominous sense of a hyper-policed world is cleverly set up through the play’s opening soundscape, it is not given enough time or enough narrative space to fully draw the audience in. Creative use of video footage projected behind the stage successfully, if somewhat sporadically, provides a point of entry into Becca’s inner world. However, this could have been deployed more consistently (and, for a multitude of reasons, with less reliance on bright red blood). Nonetheless, the cast’s performance remains energetic and engaging, with Pedelty’s fierce portrayal of Faye in particular feeling both poignant and witty in equal parts.

In the end, 24Weeks reminds us that even the most brutal, authoritarian regimes can never quash the spirit of resistance and collective solidarity. Recent shows such as Chalkline Theatre’s Blanket Ban and Eva O’Connor’s Maz and Bricks have brought vital international perspectives on the fight for reproductive justice to the Fringe in recent years. 24Weeks sits poised to take up its place in this vital chorus of voices, which feels just as urgent – just as worthy of our time and attention – as ever before.

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24Weeks, Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Nip), until 25 Aug (not 14), 1pm, £12.50-14