ENTERTAINMENT: Poignant drama on surrogacy to be staged in Ballina

‘UNGUARDED’, a play written and performed by Louth man Anthony Kinahan, is touring Ireland this spring and will be staged in Ballina Arts Centre this Saturday, February 24.
Billed as a touching and often comedic drama, it uses imaginative physicality, vocal versatility and song to highlight the vulnerable position many LGBTQ+ and non-LGBTQ+ families find themselves in due to the lack of regulation of surrogacy in Ireland.
Told from an LGBTQ+ perspective, but applicable to any family on the surrogacy journey, the story centres on a father whose world has fallen apart, leaving him to battle through obstacles to ensure a future for him and his son.
The play has gone down a storm with audiences, who have described it as ‘emotional and funny’, ‘heartbreaking’ with ‘the right amount of comic relief’. One audience member said, ‘I can’t remember the last time I was so moved by theatre’, while another described it as ‘an amazing play’, praising Kinahan’s ‘absolutely stellar performance’ and ‘sheer stamina of acting, singing, movement and cinematic style on stage’.
Speaking to GCN, Kinahan explained his passion for the subject of the play. “When I sat down with a blank screen, ‘Unguarded’ is the story that poured out of me,” he said. “I am an activist and campaigner and I would consider my art as an extension of my activism.
“The fact that families created through surrogacy and other alternative reproductive means are still not fully protected under Irish law boggles my mind. This frustration lit a fire in my belly to bring awareness to this issue in the only way I know how.”
He added that much of the play is drawn from personal experience. “Being a (single) LGBTQ+ parent; dealing with grief and loss; being the parent of a neurodivergent child, and the son in the story being obsessed with musicals? Well, that was definitely me back in the day.”
Reviewing the production, Emer O’Kelly of the Irish Independent described it as a ‘tour de force’ that rips into parental inequality’ and a ‘searing indictment of Irish law that still […] has far to go in equality terms’.
‘Unguarded’ is directed by Anna Simpson and produced by Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, and An Táin Arts Centre, Dundalk. For tickets to the Ballina performance, visit www.ballinaartscentre.com or phone 096 73593.