London play pauses after graphic abortion scene leaves theatregoers feeling faint

An award-winning play premiering at London’s Almeida Theatre was forced to take a 10-minute break on Monday (July 29) after several, mostly male, theatregoers reportedly felt faint following a graphic abortion scene.

Directed by Eline Arbo, The Years is a drama based on French Nobel prizewinner Annie Ernaux’s 2008 autobiography Les Années. The stage adaption stars five different actors, including Romola Garai (Atonement) and Gina McKee (Our Friends in the North), who bring one woman’s personal and political story to life, set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing post-war Europe.

From sexism in the workplace to advances in reproductive rights, the two-hour production also features a graphic scene in which Garai’s character performs a self-conducted, at-home abortion.

During its Monday preview, one male audience member reportedly indicated that he was feeling faint with others nearby waving over staff for assistance. The man was then taken to the theatre’s front bar area. After which, a handful of others said they, too, were feeling woozy.

“The performance on Monday of The Years was stopped for 10 minutes so that our front of house team could provide care for an audience member who required assistance. During the stoppage, care was also provided for three other audience members. All audience members were quick to recover after brief assistance,” the theatre said in a statement, according to The Guardian.

“It seemed those not feeling well were mainly male,” one attendee told The Times.

It was reported that during the pause, another man shouted that the scene “was a disgrace” and “there was no warning.” Actors on stage apparently responded to the theatregoer, saying that there had been “warnings about the abortion.”

In the theatre’s statement, it was noted that warnings were posted on “the Almeida website – here, on the booking page, in pre-visit emails, and on front of house signage in the theatre.”

Almeida’s website reads: “The Years contains sexual content, a graphic depiction of abortion, a coerced sexual encounter and blood.”

The Years first opened on stage in Amsterdam in 2022 before debuting in London on Saturday, July 27.

In a new interview with The Independent, Garai, 41, spoke about the play’s material, praising Ernaux for “basically inventing a new form, which I think was an inevitable part of her being a woman.”

“It really details how difficult it is, as a woman, to understand your body as belonging completely to yourself,” she said. “Particularly as a young woman, I definitely did not understand that. I thought that my body was the property of the society that I lived in. I didn’t really understand that it belonged to me, and that I could dictate its size and shape and what went into it and what went out of it, food and sex and all of it. And I don’t know, actually, that women definitely do feel that any better now.”