Annie Ryan’s startling stage adaption of Eimear McBride’s bruising novel A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING arrived at London’s Young Vic last week amid must-see buzz. Premiering at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2014, the unflinching portrait of one girl’s turbulent journey into the adult world was the sellout sensation at the Edinburgh Fringe and is now on a UK and US tour. Aoife Duffin, who plays the ‘girl’, is probably more widely known for her comedic role as Trisha in Chris O’Dowd’s TV sitcom MOONE BOY, has garnered a clutch of acting awards for the acclaimed solo show.

The Guardian, among other mainstream papers gave it 5 stars with The Financial Times calling her 95 minutes on stage “a remarkable performance.”  In a relentless monologue about a young woman, brutalised in puritanical Ireland as she ‘people’s the stage with characters encountered during her short life.’

It’s a thriving busy place in the Young Vic, especially on a Friday, so I didn’t notice Aoife leave after her performance until she was outside the venue and heading past the window. I did my bit for method acting and chased her down the street, adding to her traumatised characterisation experience, but she was happy to sign this montage sketch for me.