The Poetical Life of Philomena McGuinness
★★★★☆ Finely drawn
theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall (Venue 53): Sat 2 – Fri 22 Aug 2025
Review by Julia Amour
The Poetical Life of Philomena McGuinness, from Moon Rabbit Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall, is a funny and affecting portrait of an everywoman trying to make her way as a nurse through the turmoil of World War II, and still retain her sense of self.
Always described as flighty and unfocused since her childhood in Ireland, Philomena (Jasmine Gleeson) still has slightly unruly hair and a restless manner that hints she hasn’t outgrown her desire to dream beyond the confines of her everyday life.
Jasmine Gleeson in The Poetical Life of Philomena McGuinness. Pic: Moon Rabbit Theatre
Philomena defends her poetical yearnings with the observation that the great (male) Irish poets weren’t called flighty; and laments that history is liable to crystallise your identity down to one thing. And to be just one thing, warns her nursing pal Mary, will swallow you whole.
This is delicate and empathetic writing by Josh King, who credibly inhabits the thoughts of a young woman caught up in tumultuous world events while trying to hang on to her youth and her dreams.
There is a very simple but evocative set, with a selection of objects you might find in a single woman’s bedsit: a dining chair, fold-up writing table, posy of flowers and glass of whisky, along with a battered suitcase.
disarmingly conversational
Gleeson has a disarmingly conversational style, and holds the attention throughout with a wide repertoire of miniscule gestures – finishing off an apple; absent-mindedly pouring herself just a bit more whisky; playing with the flowers when she speaks of a fallen friend.
She is also very funny as a physical comedian, and in one virtuoso scene paints lightning cameos of a complement of eight nurses, all Irish and all in some way linked though friends or family or a lingering grudge. This show previously appeared at the Fringe in 2022 but feels at once fresh and honed to a fine art.
Jasmine Gleeson in The Poetical Life of Philomena McGuinness. Pic: Moon Rabbit Theatre
The whisky glass ingeniously becomes a radio microphone as war is declared in clipped BBC tones, bringing total silence down on the London ward where Philomena is working. She looks quietly stricken by the deaths of two of her elderly patients that same week, in the way of ordinary people who have to sublimate their concerns to the sweep of history.
Soon enough, her hospital fills up with casualties. With a pinched weariness, she shows the fear, rage and blunting of emotions: the risk that in caring for all these souls and enduring the blitz and the sleeplessness and the rationing, she is losing the sense of who she is.
intimate bond
Later, Philomena is transferred to a commandeered country house, and finally to a field hospital in Normandy. Here, she movingly recounts the scenes of injured men, and the tragedy of all the dreams that war leaves unfulfilled. In the end, we see both the psychological cost that her war service has demanded, and the wider meaning that her poetical thinking allows her to make of her life.
A finely drawn monologue, creating an intimate bond with the audience that invites reflection on how any one of us might appear to history.
Running time: 55 minutes (no interval).
theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall (Stephenson Theatre), Nicolson Street, EH8 9DW (Venue 53).
Sat 2 – Fri 22 August 2025.
Even dates only (not Sun 10): 3pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Moon Rabbit website: www.moonrabbittheatre.com/
Facebook: @moonrabbittheatre
Instagram: @moonrabbittheatre
X: @moonrabtheatre
ENDS
