West End theatre forced to pause play after attendees faint over gory back-street abortion scene
- Eline Arbo's The Years is on at London's Harold Pinter until April 8
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Fainting at the theatre isn't a new phenomenon, but the rate at which attendees are dropping at The Years might be.
Theatregoers watching the Eline Arbo's award-winning directorial work at London's Harold Pinter Theatre are blacking out or requesting to leave just before, during, and after a graphic abortion scene.
The Years: West End, based on French writer Annie Ernaux's feminist memoir, Less Annees, tells the intimate tale of a woman through five various life stages, from childhood during the Second World War to motherhood, with each life chapter played by a different actress.
The play is set against the political backdrop of post war Europe, with its citizens grappling with changing reproductive rights among other issues.
Though critics have praised Deborah Findlay, Gina McKee, Tuppence Middleton, Anjli Mohindra, and Harmony Rose-Bremner for their extraordinary performances, it's the audience members who have made headlines.
Since the play originally reached the Almeida last year, at least one theatregoer at most performances have reportedly lost consciousness halfway through the two-hour play, the time point when the third actress depicting Annie undergoes a back-street abortion.
The scene, set in 1963, a time when France considered medical abortions illegal, shows Romola Garai as Annie attempting to abort the foetus herself using a knitting needle before visiting a back-street nurse and miscarrying at home.
Daily Mail's Patrick Marmion can attest, with the critic writing: 'There was drama on stage and off this week at Islington's boutique Almeida Theatre when their latest show, The Years, was briefly stopped after a number of men began feeling unwell.'
The Years has reached London's Harold Pinter Theatre - but one scene is causing drama among viewers (pictured: The Years cast)
Having heard reports of the vivid abortion scene, or as the critic puts it, 'a harrowing episode in Ernaux's life story', Marmion arrived at The Almeida, where the show was prior to the West End, gripping a bottle of Bach's Rescue Remedy.
He explained: 'Recounting it, Garai also reduces the normally unshockable Almeida to mute silence — thanks in part to liberally deployed ketchup, but also because of unsparing descriptions recalling a 'baby doll on an umbilical cord'.
'If, however, you have a strong enough stomach for such things — as well as the ability to suspend moral judgements — it is just one (admittedly grim) part of a fascinating, funny and moving history of the late 20th century, seen through the eyes of a very candid French woman growing up, and growing old.'
While there's no doubt about the play's emotional power, there is a question mark on whether theatregoers have the stomach to oversee such a graphic scene.
The Guardian's Nadia Khomami witnessed a man gesture the ushers for help during the abortion scene, before others joined him in reporting similar woozy feelings to theatre staff.
Then, during the intermission, Khomami heard reports of an observer shouting from the circle that the controversial scene 'was a disgrace', particularly because 'there was no warning'.
The London theatre prepares audiences for the 1963 back street abortion scene with a trigger warning
The controversial West End play is based on French writer Annie Ernaux's feminist memoir, Less Annees
MailOnline has contacted the Almeida and The Harold Pinter Theatre for comment.
The theatre told The Guardian: 'The performance on Monday of The Years was stopped for 10 minutes so that our front of house team could provide care for an audience member who required assistance.
'During the stoppage, care was also provided for three other audience members. All audience members were quick to recover after brief assistance.'
While the anonymous attendee is well within their rights to dub the scene a 'disgrace', they're wrong about the lack of pre-warning.
Online, the show comes with a trigger warning: 'Please note that this production contains graphic depictions of abortion, blood, a coerced sexual encounter, and sexual content, which may at times be distressing. The production includes the use of e-cigarettes, haze, and flashing lights.
The trigger warning is an advantage that audiences in the Netherlands, where the play originated, never received.
'My experience is that there's more reactions than if you don't have these,' Arbo told the Financial Times. 'It's the theatre's way of giving an excuse for itself, but then you [the audience] are so aware of it that it enhances the feeling of uncomfortableness.'
Arbo reinforced that she is in support of trigger warnings and would never want the audience to attend 'unprepared'.
The Telegraph reported a 2023 study by the British Psychological Society, which found that trigger warnings have a 'negligible impact on emotional reactions', but at the same time, encourage 'an anticipatory response'.
When the Telegraph's Claire Allfree, who found the scene 'undeniably distressing, although... not especially graphic', chatted with audience members, others had a completely different view of all the fuss.
One woman said to Allfree: 'Are people going now because of the sensationalism of it and if so, is that detracting from what, for many women in the US, in light of the overturning of abortion rights, is now their lived experience?'
Others asked the reporter whether the fainters were planted there by the theatre to increase hype around the play - a claim that the Harold Pinter Theatre denied.
There's never going to be one type of reaction to watching the sensitive scene on stage, but Daily Mail's Marmion wants to remind those that can stomach the gore to do so.
He wrote: 'From a man's point of view, it's a fascinating insight into the uncensored inner life of women as they — or Ernaux at any rate — see themselves. And the women at the show I saw this week were also very clearly loving it.
'They were delighted by the occasionally shocking, but mostly playful portrait of a life — and by Ernaux's secrets.
'Her story follows a well-trodden historical path, but that only makes it more accessible — as do the five actors representing Ernaux's different ages. Each refers to themselves as 'we', indicating that this is about us all.
'Adapted by Norwegian-Dutch director Eline Arbo, Ernaux's story is skilfully staged, starting each episode by re-creating an old photograph in front of a white sheet which is then used as a tablecloth, becoming stained with wine, blood and other matter, before being hung at the back of the circular stage as a kind of memento mori.'
