Postscript was a very different animal from many of the others I’ve seen at the Fringe festival so far, there was no singing or dancing, no burlesque show, just a well acted piece of theatre, that discusses a topic that is important and relevant in modern Ireland. While I’d argue strongly that there is a place for all types of theatre, experimental as well as traditional, when something has quality, it shines through and that is certainly the case in this instance.

Postscript tells the story of an unusual detective Brida Brogan, she is on the hunt for a missing person, her Mother! Brida was given up for adoption when she was 8 weeks old, and now as a woman, she is trying to find her birth mother. She is afraid that her adoptive family will find out about her search but yearns to hear the story of her early life, and see how similar she is to her parents, in appearance and manner.

The story is told mainly through monologues, in epistolary fashion. These letters contain  requests from Brida to various people, trying to get them to reveal information about her birth. She begins to piece together what little information there is, in an attempt to reach her mother.

It is amazing to hear how people who were adopted were, and still are treated in Ireland, and the lengths they have to go to, to get something as fundamental as their birth certs. As the adoption in this story took place nearly 50 years ago, the shadow of the church is over everything that happened, showing once again the power they had over everyday life. At the heart of this production are the impressive performances from the two lead actors, Noelle Brown and Bríd Ní Neachtain. The two women breathe great life into Brida and the various aunts, nuns and other individuals she encounters on her journey and make it a most enjoyable night at the theatre.

At the end of the night, there was a round of applause, and the two actors on stage stopped the crowd to save the last applause for Susan Fitzgerald, who died earlier in the day. A touching gesture for a woman who graced many of the stages in Ireland, and is a loss to the artistic community of Ireland.

Postscript runs at the New Theatre, Temple Bar as part of the Fringe Festival until September 14th.

Written by: Noelle Brown and Michele Forbes

Performed by: Noelle Brown and Bríd Ní Neachtain

Directed by Conor Hanratty