{"id":830923,"date":"2026-03-17T03:25:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T03:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/830923\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T03:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T03:25:16","slug":"myras-story-birmingham-rep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/830923\/","title":{"rendered":"Myra’s Story – Birmingham Rep"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer and <\/strong>Director: Brian Foster<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian Foster\u2019s Myra\u2019s Story began life as Maire: A Woman of Derry in 2002, drawn from street people Foster knew in his home city. Rewritten and renamed in 2009, it has since become something of a theatrical phenomenon \u2014 four Edinburgh Fringe runs, a West End transfer, and a touring production that has now reached over 150,000 theatregoers across Ireland, the UK and North America. Its return to Birmingham Rep, this time stepping up from The Door to the main House stage, feels like a natural progression for a show that has quietly grown into one of the most significant pieces of Irish theatre currently on tour.<\/p>\n

The premise is deceptively simple. Myra McLaughlin sits at her pitch by Dublin\u2019s Ha\u2019penny Bridge, begging. What follows is the story of how she got there \u2014 a childhood marked by trauma, an early marriage to Tommy, a baby son Daniel, the slow unravelling that drink accelerates and circumstance compounds. Foster\u2019s writing is clear-eyed about causality: this is not a story of weakness or fecklessness, but of ordinary life tipping, incrementally, into crisis. He is equally clear-eyed about how society responds \u2014 or fails to. The instinct to look away, to avoid catching someone\u2019s eye, is woven into the fabric of the piece, and it gives the play a moral argument that extends well beyond its Dublin setting.<\/p>\n

None of it would work without F\u00edonna Hewitt-Twamley, and her performance here is exceptional. She carries the piece entirely alone across ninety minutes, on a bare stage with nothing but a bench, playing Myra and more than fifteen supporting characters \u2014 family, neighbours, strangers \u2014 each individually rendered through shifts in voice, posture and rhythm that are precise enough to be instantly recognisable and sustained long enough to feel fully inhabited. Tommy and Daniel, the priest, Bridie: all emerge as distinct presences. There is no blurring between them, no reliance on the audience\u2019s goodwill to paper over under-differentiated characterisation. That Hewitt-Twamley remains entirely believable as Myra throughout \u2014 dishevelled, restless, quietly desperate \u2014 while simultaneously inhabiting a dozen other lives, is a considerable achievement. It is, in the truest sense, a tour de force.<\/p>\n

The structural conceit tracks a single day, and the interval arrives at a moment that earns it: Myra sings, collects her coins and heads for the off-licence. Whether the faint echo of Danny Boy in Daniel\u2019s name is intentional or coincidental, it gives the break an understated resonance. The second half is darker, the accumulation of losses heavier, and Hewitt-Twamley carries that shift without ever tipping into melodrama.<\/p>\n

At the close, Hewitt-Twamley steps briefly out of the play to address the audience directly. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a play, not just entertainment,\u201d she says \u2014 and the observation lands not as a rebuke but as an extension of what the preceding ninety minutes have already established. With nearly 300,000 households in England experiencing acute homelessness in 2024 \u2014 a 45% increase since 2012 \u2014 the play\u2019s quiet argument that what separates the audience from Myra is less than they might assume feels all the more pointed.<\/p>\n

Myra\u2019s Story is a mature, humane and thoroughly compelling piece of theatre, delivered by a performer at the height of her powers.<\/p>\n

Reviewed on 15 March 2026 and on tour<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe Reviews Hub Star Rating<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer and Director: Brian Foster Brian Foster\u2019s Myra\u2019s Story began life as Maire: A Woman of Derry in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,138142,238506,748,393,238507,4884,238508,16,15],"class_list":["post-830923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-birmingham","tag-birmingham","tag-birmingham-rep","tag-brian-foster","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-fionna-hewitt-twamley","tag-great-britain","tag-myras-story","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116242384455933295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}