Closet Space

A taught political thriller and an unflinchingly honest chronicle of life within the Protestant community of Northern Ireland. Set in a Belfast police station where the threat of violence is always present, a woman detective struggles to overcome her colleagues' resistance to her investigation of criminal activity within the UDA (Ulster Defence Association), uncovering a hidden world of sexism, betrayal, and entrenched corruption.

Originally staged at London's Royal Court, Force earned playwright Gary Mitchell the Evening Standard's "Most Promising Playwright" Award. London's Sunday Times called The Force of Change "a superb piece of theater and a dark, bitter history lesson."

A hard-hitting drama about one of the most agonizing ordeals any parent can face, Kristine Thatcher's "Emma's Child" is a welcome respite from the melodramatic cliches surrounding birth defects. In Thatcher's play, the person most affected by the delivery of a hydrocephalic baby is not the birth mother, but a virtual stranger who had contracted through an agency to adopt the child.

Jean Farrell (Peggy Goss) could easily walk away from the situation, and her sensitive, well-meaning husband urges her to do just that. Instead, she not only visits the child in the hostpital, but also decides to pursue the adoption, despite a hopeless prognosis for the baby.

As fiction, it's a tough premise to sell without schmaltz, but the story is drawn from Thatcher's experience, lending compelling authenticity to her insights and dialogue.