When her daughter was raped, novelist Tawni O’Dell felt that her maternal promise to protect her had been broken. In the following months, their relationship deteriorated as each attempted to find their own way through trauma. O’Dell wrote the “theatrical memoir” When It Happens to You as part of that process and, although not an actor, she performed in its off-Broadway production in 2019.
In the play’s European premiere, Amanda Abbington takes the role of the mother, named Tara, and Rosie Day is the daughter, Esme. In a stylised and erratic opening sequence, the play establishes a pattern of flashing back and forward so that the raw anguish of events in the moment is tempered by a reflective tone. It brings a contrast not just in the dialogue but in Abbington’s physical performance: Tara gesticulates as if trying to impose order amid the torment, while she narrates these events retrospectively with a furrowed focus.
At its most powerful, the play captures a gulf of disconnection between parent and child that fleetingly recalls Abbington’s role in Florian Zeller’s The Son at the Kiln theatre in 2019. O’Dell focuses on the mother and daughter but also includes Esme’s brother Connor (Miles Molan) and a variety of supporting roles (played by Tok Stephen), with all four actors ever-present on stage.
There is a surprising stream of humour throughout, bringing a certain verisimilitude of the fun and levity naturally found in family dynamics, but a crucial, palpable sense of familial bonds is absent. The jokes are commonplace, which is part of the point that this is an account of real life, but it adds to a growing sense that O’Dell’s work is more diary than drama. Tara’s occasionally sardonic take on what she and others could have said, and what they actually did say, jars more on stage than in the script. There is also too much thinly sketched plot and some needless peripheral roles.
Zahra Mansouri’s set, with white and blue city skylines, exposed brickwork, frosted panels and an empty playing space, establishes urban anonymity and the freezing effect of shock. Jez Bond’s 90-minute, interval-free production has the incongruous pace of a thriller, with abrupt switches in Sherry Coenen’s lighting and jagged bursts of sound by Melanie Wilson. It can all distract from O’Dell’s script which is designed as a corrective to such empty phrases as “finding closure” and “making a fresh start”. The play pertinently foregrounds the long-term effects of sexual assault for survivors and their loved ones. Its message remains essential, even if the medium is flawed.
• At Park theatre, London, until 31 August
• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
