Local writer, Mark Wilson’s play is an astonishing piece that provides a powerful insight into the pain that adoption brings.

Thirty years ago Kathleen was forced to give up her baby and now she anxiously awaits the arrival of her grown up son who has traced her.

What follows is the back story, told as a memory play in which Kathryn O’Reilly and Stephen Myott-Meadows bring to life all the characters involved. This they do superbly through voice changes, subtle facial changes and body postures. Their underplaying protects the fragility of the writing.

A simple oval staging draws the audience into the story and, at times, individual members are addressed face-to-face as though they are characters in the story - an effective piece of direction from Sarah Meadows.

We see the story through the eyes of Kathleen, her parents and the adoptive parents. Our natural sympathies are drawn to the young mother’s loss but soon they veer to the adoptive mother who is forever haunted by the shadow of the birth mother coming between her relationship with her new son. She is tormented by feelings that he is only on loan.

This is narrative theatre at its best.

Five stars