Taken by Manuel Harlan
Playwright Rebecca Gilman expertly draws the audience to judge each character almost immediately, but their thoughts are shown to be misconceptions as the play unwinds.
For it starts off with young couple Karlie and Peter sitting in a doctor’s waiting room; he’s fading in and out of consciousness and she’s twitchy, abusive and violent.
Social worker Caroline tells the couple that their baby daughter, Luna Gale will be taken into care while they seek help for their crystal meth addiction.
At that point, we’ve already judged the couple – dirty drug-taking low life’s who have endangered the life of their vulnerable, innocent baby, which has forced the state to intervene.
And we’ve made up our minds about Caroline too – the veteran social worker – who strives to do things by the book.
But as the play unravels, we warm to Karlie and Peter who show their devotion to each other and in cleaning up their acts to get their daughter back.
At first, Karlie’s mum Cindy is portrayed as a good, stable figure and it’s almost inevitable that Luna Gale will be placed with her grandmother in ‘kinship’, despite Karlie’s protest over this (we learn Karlie had a rocky relationship with her mum).
However, Caroline mocks Cindy’s faith in God and the more she hears Cindy speak of the ‘end’, the less inclined she is to let her have Luna.
That is until the straight-talking Caroline asks Karlie if she was abused as a child which is why she acted out as a teenager. She answers ‘no’ and the curtain closes with Caroline asking ‘but what if it did?’.
In an interview about the production, playwright Rebecca Gilman says the play isn’t dark and she doesn’t want it to seem like a miserable night out.
It covers the disturbing subjects of childhood sexual abuse and drug abuse and Gilbert explains she wanted to bring this to the mainstream stage to show that it can and does happen.
But there are comedic and touching moments too – which would be a shame to reveal here – making Luna Gale a fantastic all-rounder. Directed by Michael Attenborough, the cast were flawless, passionate and truly inspiring in their roles.
Luna Gale is showing at Hampstead Theatre until 18 July.
