New play aims to abolish the silence of abortion

An upcoming Auckland play aims to spark wider conversation about abortion through its multiple narratives about the controversial topic.

The Voice in My Head premieres at the Basement Theatre next week, and includes monologues from five very different female characters.

Lead actor Natalie Medlock (Funny Girls, Shortland Street) said the play features women from different parts of the world and time.

“They’re individual monologues that thematically link. They’re women’s stories.”

The Voice in My Head was written and is being directed by Ms Medlock’s close friend and frequent collaborator Jodie Molloy.

Through the five stories, the play looks at “the whole gamut of female pressures,” said Ms Molloy.

The writer and director was inspired to write the play after reading a fictional account of Katherine Mansfield’s alleged abortion.

“It was so chilling and so horrifying . . . that it really put me in the head space of what it would be like to be this character going through this.”

Both Ms Molloy and Ms Medlock are worried about New Zealand’s general silence around abortion.

The play highlights different arguments and emotional conflicts around the issue, said Ms Medlock.

New Zealand’s abortion laws typically require potential patients to get the approval of two separate certified doctors.

Resources from Family Planning New Zealand explain that this approval involves the consultants agreeing that “continuing the pregnancy would result in serious danger to your mental or physical health”.

This is a situation that Ms Molloy finds “curious in this particular day and age”.

“The only way that law will change is if New Zealand women know about that law and are compelled to change it.”

However, the director maintains that The Voice in My Head is not political propaganda but rather “part of a wider discussion”.

“[Abortion and women’s agency] needs to be talked about. We need to take our head out of the sand.

“To start that dialogue . . . to me that would be the most exciting result.”

The Voice in My Head runs at the Basement Theatre from May 24 to June 4. Tickets are available here.