Annie Ernaux’s The Years is transferring to the West End. It’s about time the arts confront the way women’s bodies work

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
Fri 3 Jan 2025

Following a sold-out run at the Almeida theatre, this month The Years – a stage adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s choral novel of 21st-century womanhood – transfers to the West End. The play became somewhat notorious because of the impact that its abortion scene was having on audience members. In the scene, a bloodied Romola Garai recounts passing a dead foetus after an illegal backstreet abortion, a performance our theatre critic described as “devastating”. A preview last summer had to be stopped as several audience members requested medical assistance, while another shouted at the cast that the scene had been “a disgrace” and protested that “there was no warning” (content notes were, in fact, provided).

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/03/the-years-annie-ernaux-abortion-play-west-end