Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Aoife Duffin’s ferocious performance rivets in the stage adaptation of A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING

• By drediman
• April 25, 2016
• No Comments

This afternoon, I caught a performance of A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, a stage adaptation of the novel by Eimear McBride, at Baryshnikov Arts Center. The story, which takes place in Ireland over a few decades, concerns a nameless girl who uses sex to numb the recurring intensity of her feelings – which perhaps arise from having a brother suffering from brain cancer, a fanatically religious mother, an uncle who sexually abused her as a minor (the character’s first introduction to sex), and the absence of a father figure. Or are her nymphomaniac tendencies simply the result of needing to fill the emptiness in her life? It’s not really clear. One of the aspects that makes the piece so provocative and intriguing is its refusal to precisely define the catalyst of her behavior.

The play, artfully adapted and directed by Annie Ryan into a hallucinatory solo show, features a ferocious performance by a young actress by the name of Aoife Duffin. Ms. Duffin, who skillfully plays all the roles in the story, is giving one of the most memorable performances of the season. She’s utterly unafraid to go where Ms. McBride and Ms. Ryan need her to go – often times to the darkest and most unspeakable places of the human psyche. As the character journeys to these uncharted emotional territories, the play’s dialogue becomes increasingly fractured and frenzied. Ironically, it’s in these relatively incoherent rants that the play is most visceral – and compelling. A Girl is a Half-formed Thing is a tough play to sit through despite its run time of less than ninety minutes. But those with the patience and constitution to sit through it will benefit from having this one in the memory bank.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING
Off-Broadway, Play
Irish Arts Center at Baryshnikov Arts Center
1 hour, 25 minutes (without an intermission)
Through April 30