In an intimate space we are introduced to two women. They quite literally are polar opposites of the other. One is an airline pilot and is dressed in a business suit with a designer bag. The other is a glamorous footballer’s wife who takes her fashion tips from My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
The pilot has been having an affair with the wife’s husband Alan and she has found out. Written and directed by former Fair City actress Gemma Doorly who plays the mistress, W.A.G is a dark and surprisingly familiar tale. Alan’s wife played by Sorcha Furlong is the footballer’s first love and mother of his kids who confronts his sophisticated mistress when she finds pictures on his phone. They don’t have names only ‘wife’ and ‘girlfriend’. It is a narrative we see played out in tabloids all too often, footballer cheats, wife sticks by him, this wife says herself that leaving him and getting her own job would be a fate worse than death!
But where is the elusive Alan? The man whom these women are fighting over. This play highlights the ‘silent’ man in these tabloid tales, the women are focused on by the media and are left to fight it out in the tabloids while the men get off scott free, the wives rarely leave them and they are still the darlings of the press *cough Ryan Giggs cough*. The wife prides herself on being ‘perfect’ for her husband yet he still cheats, she wants to know what the girlfriend has that she doesn’t have.
The acting is superb; Furlong plays the long suffering wife with energy and perfect mannerisms. Her emotions are real and raw and her accent is spot on. Doorly plays the aloof girlfriend with style showing contempt for the wife but also showing a vulnerable side. The set is perfect showing the resplendent luxury this footballers wife lives in with a giant Andy Warhol esque portrait of Alan front and centre, could it be any more obvious who is King here?
The women are pitted against each other, the wife and mother versus the career woman, to battle it out on stage, which woman comes out on top? Or could there possibly be a winner in this modern day parable? Has the wife finally had enough? You’ll have to see for yourself..
~ Reviewed by Emma Toner
——————————————————————————————-
W.A.G runs at The Civic until Sat 2nd February in the Loose End Studio.
Tickets are now SOLD OUT but we hope to have it back in 2013 so keep an eye out on our website for further details! www.civictheatre.ie
