Gentlemen of the Jury. Cambridge Guildhall. 27 – 29 June

The Guildhall in Cambridge is the perfect venue for this fascinating experimental play by Aisling Towl, produced by AKRO Theatre. The play is staged in an old courtroom with wood-panelled walls, at this Grade II listed building next to Market Square. The audience are divided in two, half on one side of the court and half on the other, while four young women sit on a bench on a third side. It is high summer and the high-ceilinged, windowless room is hot and stuffy; programmes are used to fan sweaty faces, evoking memories of the oppressive heat of the jury room in Twelve Angry Men. As someone who is yet to be summoned to do jury service, I find myself wondering whether this experience might amount to something similar. Will I need to remember everything I am about to hear, including the numbers assigned to the four women? Will I be expected to deliberate, afterwards, with the complete strangers sitting beside me and opposite me? The setting raises so many questions.

Our host for the evening, Nicolas Raymeni’s ‘Officer’, soon attempts to put us at our ease. We are here for ‘Ladies Night’, it transpires – something he organises regularly. ‘Ladies Nights’ are supposed to be fun, though, and the four women lined up in the dock look troubled: one of them has already stumbled through the Lord’s Prayer, seeking help from above. The Officer attempts some banter with one of the women, Mimi – a prostitute with whom he has a bit of history: “Not these days, you understand, I’m a married man!” He seems to want to get us on side, but given the women’s distress, his blokey humour adds to the sense of unease.

It transpires that this court ‘hearing’ has different rules from those we are used to: the women must tell us their stories, competing with one another to be granted the right to “the procedure”. Each of them, we learn, is pregnant, but none of them wishes to go ahead with the pregnancy – for four different reasons.

The stories are at times interrupted by surreal moments when red lights come on and the women in the dock writhe around, move expressively in their seats, or make spiteful and disapproving noises. Some may interpret this as representing the typical reactions of other women, or society in general, to the plight of each individual woman: victim-blaming, perhaps, or victim-shaming. At the Q&A session that follows the performance, though, we learn from the play’s producer that these moments are intended to give the women their own space within the play, so that they can form a kind of chorus, converging naturally and doing what they actually want to do, rather than what the Officer tells them to do. Also interspersed with the four stories are the prayers that each woman offers up over the course of the play. These reveal more about the women’s characters: Dounia El Barhdadi’s Adah swears at God repeatedly, dubious about whether he exists, while Harriet Haylock’s Mimi recites her prayer with a grace and articulacy that belie the stereotypes we might have about a tattooed sex worker. Katie Gathercole’s wide-eyed Eve is a Cambridge student who can’t bear the thought of anything ruining her finals, while Jenny Scudamore’s Mary is deeply concerned about the family finances: they simply can’t afford to have another child. Bitter bickering breaks out when it emerges that one of the women is not telling the whole truth, but at other times they show empathy for one another. The four actresses are superb, telling their stories in a way that is highly convincing. In the bleak world of the play, though, which character will win out, and who will be the arbiter of their fate?

Given the re-criminalisation of abortion in some parts of the world and our legal system’s deeply inadequate handling of cases of sexual violence, this new play is urgent and highly relevant. Some striking things were said at the aforementioned Q&A with the cast and creative team, with one person noting: “I’d like to think that if this was real life, we’d have had a f***ing riot!” This thought-provoking play poses questions about what is permissible in a courtroom and at the theatre, and I urge you to go and see it. Don’t miss the Q&A, either!

Photos credit Paul Ashley