Writer: Sophie O’Toole & Trudy Nolan
Director: Trudy Nolan
D’Girlos Theatre Company made a splash at last year’s Dublin Fringe Festival (2025) with That’s Soo Povo, enjoying a sold out run and nominations for both the Solas Nua New Voices Award and best production at the festival. This year has them premiering another strong piece with A Recurrence; a story that explores the reality of life for working class women in Dublin through three distinct voices and three distinct time periods – Minnie (Erin Murray Boyne) in a 1930s tenement, Jasmine (Sophie O’Toole) in a 1990s flat, and Grace (Ciara Byrne) in a present day council house. As their stories unfold, we find there are more connections between these three women than meets the eye.
Upstairs in the Civic is a small space, and it lends itself well to the intimacy of this production. The set (designed with support from Gorilla Design) is a triptych, on the left a door into a tenement on Henrietta street, in the centre a roof backdropped by the flats in Fatima, and on the right the front façade of a council house somewhere in the Dublin suburbs. This three hander is primarily individual monologues, cutting back and forth between the women in a way that is both seamless (at times they finish each other’s sentences) and distinctive (Vlada Hrytsenko’s use of spotlights here is perfection). Another key element to this production is the sound design from Megan Murphy – music features heavily throughout, with an almost ominous feel to the piece that the audience sits with in anticipation of the play’s open, and some pop and dance bangers from the 90s to now flowing through both O’Toole and Byrne’s monologues. These technical elements have the potential to make for a very immersive experience, but the production value lets them down a little, with Bryne nearly having to shout over her club tracks at times, and O’Toole describing a thumping bass that just can’t be heard in the room.
The three actors are electric. Murray Boyne captures an innocence with Minnie that has you leaning towards her, heart open to her grasping desire to be seen, to be free, to be something. O’Toole brings the grief of a recent loss so close that you can feel your own throat tightening. Byrne marries humour and heartache, describing a memory with a parent so beautifully that you can smell the sea, feel the grains of sand in your mouth, and ache for that unconditional love gone missing. The emotion in the room is palpable and the talk of tears runs freely in all corners of the audience after the performance concludes.
The writing is thought provoking to say the least. The forced migration of working class people in Dublin over the last century is a topic that isn’t explored nearly enough, but is evoked here in a very poignant way. The parallels between the tenements and the flats are highlighted by Minnie and Jasmine’s contrasting but comparable situations, and though Grace lives in a space that’s far less cramped, her experience echoes theirs. How women are boxed into roles in these environments, seen by their communities, and judged for their desires and actions and selves, are all discussed in these three monologues, creating a thread that runs across a hundred years, pulled tauter and tauter until it finally snaps.
A Recurrence is a very powerful piece, exploring topics that are crying out for recognition, discussion, and healing. Although at times it feels a little overwritten or heavy handed, overall it’s a well-constructed play that tugs heavily on the heart strings, all the while resisting any temptation to fall into trite storytelling tropes – for a story that explores not one but three unwanted pregnancies, there isn’t a single moment where the audience has to question the agency of the young women and girls involved, and that’s a triumph in itself. There are surely big things ahead for D’Girlos, so make sure you catch their sophomore production before it finishes.
Runs Until Sept 13th 2026.
