WRENS By Anne V. McGravie Directed by Trish Brown Trigger Warning: This show contains frank discussions of rape and abortion in the 1940’s. While neither of these events are depicted on stage, this subject matter is a part of the play. Synopsis WRENS explores the relationships between seven young English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish women living together in a Nissan Hut on a British Naval Base in the Orkney Islands while serving in the Women’s Royal Navy Service (WRNS) during WWII. “On the eve of VE Day, seven women sharing a barrack fight inner conflicts centering on emotional growth, loss of innocence, and biting questions about their responsibility toward others. Each is forced to examine her own self-absorption, morality, and petty prejudices when one wren is raped and faced with the life and soul-threatening choices of what to do about her subsequent pregnancy. Regardless of the changes at hand, these courageous but fallible souls downplay the tragedy and self-pity in favor of a reluctant kind of bonding—making them more flesh-and-blood real than inaccessibly heroic.” (New City) “By the end of the gently feminist two-hour drama, these clearly defined young women are vividly etched. McGravie wisely lets the issues in her play (women’s roles in the armed forces, abortion, class-based politics) slowly emerge from what appears to be the genuine interaction of character.” (Chicago Tribune)
