This one woman show follows Ruth, a
middle-aged single mother, on her train
journey to introduce her infant daughter
(Eve) to her grown-up son (Ben). The audience
follows the story through Ruth’s conversations
with her infant daughter, her fellow passengers
and with her inner thoughts (played as voice-over's)
which are quite often at odds with her outer
utterances.
Ruth has been isolated for some weeks and
pours out her heart to one sympathetic listener
after another. We learn how Eve’s
father, Adam “… a bit corny,
isn’t it? Calling his daughter Eve?
Especially as the sin wasn’t all that
original…” has disappeared
from the scene after hasty words were spoken
and how Ruth is struggling to come to terms
with loneliness and unexpected motherhood.
Ruth’s unplanned pregnancy revealed
cracks in the relationship: “We
looked at it so differently. For me, putting
down roots meant depth and fertile soil:
the opportunity for blossom. For him it
meant mud and entanglement and a rolling
stone covered in moss…”
Men are definitely still on her mind. In
fact, she can’t seem to get them out
of her mind; “…does anyone
else find charcuterie incredibly suggestive?”
but as a “woman of uncertain age
with someone else’s baby”
she doesn’t expect to be able to any
more than “look and lust”.
Even this lands her in trouble on the journey.
After a series of mishaps and adventures
she arrives at the terminus: “…of
course I know what it means, I did Latin
O level I’ll have you know”.
She’s not on the train she should
have been on and she doesn’t have
quite as much luggage as she set off with,
but at least she’s there. As she looks
along the platform for her son she discovers
that Ben is not the only one waiting to
meet her...
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