At Birth – IDGTF – Review
by Gearóid O’Byrne

until 12/05/23

When an American gay man and his lesbian best friend meet for drinks to commiserate on both their breakups and end up making out, what could possibly go wrong?  Not much, I guess, until she misses her period and they have to deal with all the consequences of that.

Written and performed by Ty Autry (USA) and Thalia Gonzalez Kane (Canada) and directed by Melissa Foulger with intimacy direction by Monty Davis, this is a darkly comic and, at the same time, searingly honest look at unplanned pregnancy, especially so as it is set in the US in a post revocation of Roe vs Wade scenario when different states are starting to implement varying abortion regimes.

Ty Autry is a genderqueer Southern creative, University College Dublin & Gaiety School of Acting graduate, Thalia Gonzalez Kane is a queer, Ecuadorian-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, and theatre scholar.

The characters behave in an honest and direct manner, their friendship freeing them each up to say and express exactly what they want. When a gay man is suddenly presented with the possibility of unexpected fatherhood how does he feel? Similarly when a woman finds herself pregnant but without maternal feelings what should she do?

This pair of close gay friends find a way, through their deep attachment to each other, to honestly state their needs and then work out how to best proceed, whilst finding their own inner maturity as they do so.

This is a focused and physical production with wry dark comedy and moments of intense emotional honesty.