Postscript at The Source Thurles

The idea for this play is based on something most of us take for granted. Many of us can look at our bumpy nose and blame our mother or, see our own hands or gestures in our siblings. Growing up Noelle Brown could never do that. She could not find family resemblances in photos or blame her bad points on her ancestors. Noelle Brown was adopted and this play tells her story.

From a young age, Noelle knew something was amiss. Her light skin and red hair stood out in a family with dark hair and sallow complexions. Told  the truth early on by loving parents, Brown decides as an adult to track down her birth mother and uncover the circumstances that prompted her being given up for adoption.

It is a very personal story of her search for her birth mother. Noelle was born in the nineteen sixties and adopted when she was just 8 weeks old. It was a shameful period of Irish history when young unmarried mothers had little option but to hand over their babies for adoption.

This play reminds us that the legacy of these adoptions lives on today. There are still mothers, elderly now, yearning for a lost child. Like the story of Philomena Lee whose tragic tale inspired the Oscar-nominated movie Philomena, or the secrets of unidentified women from St Mary’s High Park in Dublin, and many others whose dignity was ignored both in life and death, it may never be known who they were. Noelle is one of many lost children well into adulthood, still searching for a sense of belonging.

This piece of work is co-written with Michele Forbes and is delivered through letters spoken as monologues. The story is poignant but also humorous with projections of letters, old documents and photos that form the background and set the tone for a powerful story. Highly recommended.

Postscript

Wednesday 28 May 8pm

Tickets €15/12 conc.

Office 0504 90204, www.thesourceartscentre.ie