Giving Up Marty

Joel is found by his birth mum and sister. He’s only eighteen and scared. Identity means a lot, particularly to a teenager. His life is about to change forever. Until now he’s just known Mum, Dad and his sister. Life is safe, settled and secure. Yes, he’s been curious about his origins but no more than that. As he turns eighteen, much to everyone’s surprise, it’s Martha, his birth mother and Melissa, his birth sister who come looking for him. The events that follow, leave Joel embroiled in a family history, that changes his life and identity forever. There’s long been a fascination with blood ties and those broken, reunited and reshaped. Adoption reunion is epic and complex in nature and never easy, but it’s this unease that needs to be heard.

Giving Up Marty is a brand new play by Karen Bartholomew. Spare and gutsy, it takes no prisoners.

Part of the Vaults Festival