A term first coined by sexual assault survivor and activist Tarana Burke in 2006, “MeToo” was brought into high relief more than a decade later, when sexual abuse allegations were levelled against Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein.
US actress Alyssa Milano brought the term to the mainstream when she tweeted in 2017: ‘If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote “Me too” as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.’
The hashtag #MeToo instantly went viral, becoming a catchcry and a social movement.
This was the environment in which Ulster American was born. First staged at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2018, David Ireland’s play tackles female agency (or lack thereof) in the entertainment industry and asks broader questions about the way women – especially clever, opinionated women – are treated by society at large.
Up-and-coming playwright Ruth Davenport (played by Harriet Gordon-Anderson) is the author of the unflinching historical drama called Shrapnel, about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. She secures esteemed theatre director Leigh Carver (Brian Meegan) and Oscar-winning Hollywood star Jay Conway (Jeremy Waters) to help bring her play to life; we meet the trio as they’re about to start rehearsals.
The two men’s vehement claims to be allies and feminists are soon brought into question. Endless mansplaining and talk of reworking the script give the lie to their self-proclaimed progressive credentials and Ruth finds herself sidelined on her own project.
The men’s staggering hypocrisy and Ruth’s biting ripostes provide fertile comedic ground for this dark satirical comedy, where the darkness turns pitch black when Leigh and Jay shoot the breeze over whether it’s ever morally acceptable to rape someone.
Meegan and Waters play the gross misogyny to great effect, with the pair highly convincing in their depiction of male collusion and toxic masculinity. Gordon-Anderson, meanwhile, is perfect as the razor-sharp playwright who ultimately exacts revenge of the most definitive kind.
At the risk of being hypercritical, if there’s any criticism to be made of the acting, it’s a minor one relating to the cast’s accents. While Meegan’s English theatre luvvie accent is flawless throughout, there are a couple of fleeting slip-ups in Waters’ West Coast Hollywood drawl and Gordon-Anderson’s Northern Irish articulation (admittedly one of the most distinctive, nuanced accents in the English-speaking world).
Overall, though, all three actors – guided by dialect coach Linda Nicholls-Gidley – believably inhabit their characters’ ethnicities.
Also effective is the London loft apartment of the fictitious director, with set and lighting designer Veronique Benett fashioning an appropriate, versatile space in which to showcase the action. No mean feat considering the stage is doing double duty, concurrently hosting a run of Joanna Murray-Smith’s Switzerland.
Ultimately, cast and crew have done justice to Ireland’s play, which was previously staged with the same trio of actors by the Outhouse Theatre Co in 2021 and 2022 at the Seymour Centre and Riverside Theatres, Parramatta.
Read: Exhibition review: The same crowd never gathers twice, Buxton Contemporary
While the #MeToo movement has perhaps passed its heyday, Ulster American remains relevant as ever – corpulent, cigar-smoking Weinstein having two rape convictions overturned just last month and gender-based violence still deploringly common in Australia and globally.
Ulster American by David Ireland
Ensemble Theatre, Kirribilli NSW
Director: Shane Anthony
Set and Lighting Designer: Veronique Benett
Costume Designer: Claudia Kryszkiewicz
Sound Designer: Mary Rapp
Dialect Coach: Linda Nicholls-Gidley
Fight Director: Tim Dashwood
Stage Manager: Saz Watson
Assistant Stage Manager: Christopher Starnawski
Costume Supervisor: Renata Beslik
Cast: Harriet Gordon-Anderson, Brian Meegan, Jeremy Waters
Tickets: $25-$88
Ulster American will be performed until 8 June 2024.
