Eris wants a baby. Atlanta can’t imagine anything worse. Eris is looking for love. Atlanta worries that she can’t love anyone. Eris is working in a bar. Atlanta is studying to be a lawyer. They’re both in their early twenties. Their prospects are very different, their dreams are very different but they’re also best friends. When Eris gets involved with a new man, she finds herself with urgent questions to answer.

A play for our time, ‘Jumper Bumps’ by Amelia Rodger explores the hot topic of reproductive rights from the perspective of these two young women. It raises the thorny, difficult topics of abortion and coercive control among young adults, sensitively exploring some of the ways in which coercive control can be exercised and the emotional fallout from both. The comedic but touching script provides a window into the world of today’s young women, their attitudes towards motherhood and the respective roles of morality, practicality and choice (or lack of it).

Rodger is also one of the performers. As Eris, she navigates a considered arc from feisty, in control friend and flatmate to someone who’s lost her way. Atlanta (Katrina Allen), a member of FemSoc in her spare time, is the voice of women’s rights in the story, making her final moments of vulnerable indecision all the more striking. Rodger does a great job of acknowledging that as people, we inevitably hold conflicting opinions within ourselves. Much of the complexity of this script lies in these contradictions and director, Emma Ruse, fully exploits this tension.

The production is simply staged and nicely choreographed with a jaunty but touching soundtrack. ‘Jumper Bumps’ is a thoughtful play that with a bit more pruning, could pack more of a punch. But it was well received by this audience and it’s always great to see work from local writers (Rodger’s from Perth) supported by Keep It Fringe.

‘Jumper Bumps‘ is at Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower – Ruby until Sun 24 Aug 2025 at 16:20