Content Warning: Abortion
★★★★✰
Blanket Ban is difficult to accurately describe. On the one hand it is an impassioned rallying cry for reproductive rights in writer/performers Davinia Hamilton and Marta Vella’s home country of Malta, which has a near total ban on abortion. On the other, it is as much a love letter to Malta as Hamilton and Vella share their deep affection for the country throughout the piece. It is this tension between their love for their home country, and their frustration at the laws which govern women’s reproductive rights there which make Blanket Ban such an interesting, emotional and beautiful piece of theatre.
It would be easy to assume that Blanket Ban would be an incredibly bleak piece. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. There are incredibly moving stories covered in the piece which come from three years of interviews that Hamilton and Vella carried out: for example, that of a woman who went into premature labour and was refused help by Maltese doctors because the baby still had a heartbeat. However, the pair also infuse a great warmth and sense of humour into the piece and there are far more laughs than one would initially expect. The humour brings some much needed levity to proceedings and though at times it does feel like the play has tonal whiplash, the use of humour does disarm and relax the audience to the extent that when the more harrowing stories come, it is easier to truly absorb them and they hit harder than they would if the play was sheer bleakness all the way through.
Hamilton and Vella both give incredible performances. Vella’s final monologue in which she wrestles with her love for Malta and her anger at what her country has put women through in order to be able to access abortion was particularly searing and heart-breaking. It is one that will stay in the mind long after watching. The pair navigate the line between funny and sombre effortlessly, and it is clear how much respect and empathy they have for the stories they share in this play.
The minimal set is well designed; set and costume designer Isabella Van Braeckel has done a fantastic job. The staging consists of a yellow floor to resemble Malta’s beach and various blue boxes which are utilised to great effect during the show, including at one point to double as suitcases! A billowing curtain is set up behind the performers which functions as the screen for the various video projections utilised throughout the piece. A particularly humorous moment involving red clown noses is an especially fun and clever piece of prop design.
Tom Fitch’s video design utilising videos of the women who contributed stories for the play is one of my favourite pieces of projection design from this year and the inclusion of the videos definitely heightens the impact of the piece.
If one thing detracts from the play, it is the haphazard nature of it. Many threads are interwoven, and between stories of Malta’s history, the creators’ own story of making the play, the various abortion stories, there is a lot going on. Sometimes it is a little hard to follow. The play could benefit from a more focused approach, and some of the tangential stories (like one that runs throughout the play about the siege of Malta during WWII) could be removed without losing the overall impact of the piece.
Overall, Blanket Ban is incredibly successful at what it sets out to achieve. It creates a stirring portrait of the current situation in Malta and is an incredibly effective call to action in the fight for reproductive rights around the globe, even in the UK, where as Hamilton and Vella explain, the situation is not as stable as many would think. It would be impossible to leave this play not feeling at least a little inspired to fight for change, and even more emotionally stirred by the experiences Maltese women have had to face.
Blanket Ban runs at Southwark Playhouse until 20 May. Tickets are available here.
Words By Jo Elliott
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