Flo

Oran Mor Glasgow / Lemon Tree Aberdeen

April 2016

Martin McCormick’s new play, written specially for his partner Kirsty Stuart, centres on the life of Helen who is suffering with severe post-natal depression. Her situation is exacerbated by the fact that she is in compound in the Green Zone in Basra, where her husband works as a surgeon tending to the war wounded.

Helen’s companions are her cigarettes, the Match of the Day commentary team that she watches avidly on her plasma screen and her taciturn neighbour Hasina. One day, driven to distraction by her baby Flo’s incessant wailing, she drives her baby into the desert, not knowing where she’s going, or what she will do with her child…

An outstanding performance by Kirsty Stuart, backed by simple but effective design and a soundtrack of Natasha Atlas and MIA conjured the heat of Iraq and the frustration and loneliness of being a young mother.

Mary Brennan, The Herald

Kirsty Stuart… gives a total belter of a performance as Helen, shifting persuasively from a screaming pitch of exhausted melt-down to a state of dazed, almost delusional confusion…a bravura chameleon talent.

Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman

A fearless performance from Kirsty Stuart.