Four generations of women from one family are indelibly linked to the working-class community of Tiger’s Bay, a small community caught between the docks and the Cavehill in Belfast. Each of them dreams of escaping from there – America, Australia, even Southampton would do – but when they do break free, can they really stay away?
The Half Moon begins with Ethel in wartime Belfast, she is desperate to sign up with the Wrens to do her bit and escape the city, and though she is thwarted she finds a way to serve the women of her community. A generation later, her daughter Jeanette is doing just fine with a nice wee job and earning a few quid in a side hustle when the troubles slice the city into enclaves, and the fact that she’s from Tiger’s Bay poses problems.
Our themes are set, the yearning to escape represented by the long walk up the Cavehill and the views into the distance, countered by the pride in home. The Half Moon being the step outside your front door that must be kept spotless lest the neighbours think you’re not houseproud enough. Playwright Alice Malseed has done a beautiful job of illustrating the conflict between deep attachment to home and the desire to escape. A desire driven more and more by the actions of a few dragging down the community around them.
At the heart of the play, women’s futures are ruptured by external circumstances, but the disappointment is balanced with deep kindness. Friendships are found in unlikely places, and they forge hope for the future. Actor Ruby Campbell brings such sensitivity to each of the women, capturing their different eras as her body language and movement relaxes and becomes more assertive with each generation. She is helped by pitch-perfect language, the colloquialisms just right for each period.
Sarah and Pam from the generations succeeding Ethel and Jeanette have the chance to escape, but the draw of home is never far away, and the conflicts that continue to tarnish Tiger’s Bay leave their mark on them as well. Towards the end, the play seems a little rushed, as if there is just too much to fit in. A few years down the line, what we hear of one character from her daughter jarred a little, and there are a couple of unanswered questions, but each character we spend time with is completely convincing. The set is simple and elegant with its circular rise and fall staging the course of the women’s lives both physically and metaphorically
The Half Moon is a rich and rewarding look back at how the lives of the women from one family are shaped by circumstances but defined by their resilience and pride.
‘The Half Moon‘ runs until 28 Aug 2023 at Pleasance Dome (Jack Dome) at 14.35