When It Happens to You review – Amanda Abbington stars in a mother’s memoir of her daughter’s rape
5 / 10
There is a surprising stream of humour throughout, bringing a certain verisimilitude of the fun and levity naturally found in family dynamics, but a crucial, palpable sense of familial bonds is absent. The jokes are commonplace, which is part of the point that this is an account of real life, but it adds to a growing sense that O’Dell’s work is more diary than drama. Tara’s occasionally sardonic take on what she and others could have said, and what they actually did say, jars more on stage than in the script. There is also too much thinly sketched plot and some needless peripheral roles.
