Theatre

Safe Place

Oran Mor, Glasgow

Mary Brennan

four stars

LATE one rainy night, a lone figure knocks on Martine’s front door. Martine (Jennifer Black) does what many of us wouldn’t: she opens that 4am door. And then – still clueless as to who the stranger is – she invites the shivering, frightened young woman inside. Martine, a prominent and very vocal feminist with strong views (akin to Germaine Greer’s) on what constitutes a “real” woman, has in fact just brought Rowan (Shane Convery) into her home. And Rowan, aged nineteen, is a transgender woman with a keen sense of trans rights, and an even keener sense of the wrongs that a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) like Martine is actively encouraging.

What follows is a frank, thoughtful and sensitively negotiated pathway across the current minefield of gender-related issues, with writer/director Clara Glynn airing some of the hotly debated attitudes that have provoked recent headlines. Glynn, however, takes us beyond oppositional dogmas and makes Safe Place about real people with real needs. Martine’s entire life has been bound up in fighting against sexism, but as she gets older – and her body, like her bolshie spirit, gets crankier – she’s home alone, with her computer and her causes. Rowan, meanwhile, is homeless and jobless because of choosing to reveal her true gender identity – and for all her defiant speeches, her assertive behaviour, Rowan is every bit as lonely as Martine. Shane Convery, currently in his final year on the BA Musical Theatre course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, balances Rowan on a brilliantly nervy tightrope between confidence and insecurity, while being utterly convincing as a self-centred young adult demanding to be taken seriously. Jennifer Black’s Martine parallels this with her own cocktail of mixed emotions, sparked through with wry humour and an integrity that resists the politically expedient advice from her agent (Nalini Chetty). Maybe the best point that’s made, however, is that whatever “bits” you’re born with, you need to have a heart that is open and caring.

Sponsored by Heineken