EUTC’s Immaculate is a wild, witty, and deeply hysterical piece redefining the act of giving birth. In this case, ‘immaculate conception’ refers not to the Virgin Mary’s pregnancy but the pregnancy of protagonist Mia, which results in a showdown between the Angel Gabriel and Lucifer. Not only is it Mia left pregnant but the audience too, storming into the Edinburgh night having experienced a fever dream of torn relationships and misplaced babies.
While mystery remains around this ‘immaculate conception’, there is no mystery around the immaculate performance Eve Nugent brings, playing Mia in this farcical rom-com-drama. She is the driving force behind the action, filling the auditorium with a proud yet also deeply concerned energy, which creates sincerity at moments rooted behind intense sections of ‘in your face’ humour. Nugent provides moments of intimacy (not always the sexual kind – Mia is a sex worker) with the audience, which forces the onlooker to become enveloped in Mia’s complex personality. Together with the Angel Gabriel spectacularly performed with prowess and suave by Andrew More, the piece becomes a baby-fest of merging worlds and unknown identities.
Greeted by a proud group of boy-band-esque angels who perform a narratorial role in the story, the audience grasps the wacky nature of this piece. Standing out for his energy and how he embraces the role is Theo Riviere, who morphs seamlessly between this role and the role of ex-boyfriend. These rapid interludes however did lack some vigour in terms of the basic nature of these scenes and detracted from the otherwise high-level comedy. Director Fiona Forster truly has little fault with the exemplary stage pictures and fast-paced performance style, which catch the audience off-guard with every rapid gag.
Beautifully handled are moments of sincerity which draw poignant attention to abortion debates and pro-choice narratives. Mia is left silent, baffled, and powerless to the ‘higher powers’ around her – including her dry ex-boyfriend. Despite the fact that these moments appear quite suddenly, the reliably poised direct address from Nugent is well-worked. The supporting actors work well together, although sometimes drawing too much attention to themselves which detracts from the action – sometimes falling into more minor roles would have been more apt.
“Babies don’t just appear in the world pretending to be born – or do they?” notes one character. In this bizarre Elf-esque narrative a charming chaos is made plausible, forming a buoyantly balanced, unmissable drama.
Photo by Becca Hardy