The Only Girl in the World

Published Wednesday 7 May 2008 at 16:25 by Kate Lauer

This powerful play re-examines the story of the final victim of Jack the Ripper, exploring the last few days in the life of 25-year-old Irish immigrant Mary Jane Kelly, and her relationship with Joseph Barnett, the man she was living with before her death.

Accompanied intermittently by the music of Andrew Mathys’ fiddle, Jennifer Kidd as Mary and John Wark as Joe deliver their lines of verse with skill and passion, drawing the audience into the story of the stuttering, besotted fishmonger and the sassy, witty yet self-destructive prostitute.

Wark gives a touching performance as the earnest Joe, courting his “Marie Jeanette” and losing his lodgings, his position and his moral compass as he strives to keep her happy. Kidd beguiles and infuriates in equal measure as one of the “unfortunates” plying her trade in the slums, and her singing voice is sweet, despite only really being displayed through the off kilter ditties she croons when “the worse for drink, but not drunk”.

The intimate studio setting, stark set and moody lighting all help to create an atmosphere of intense emotion and to bring home the horror of a situation expressed in Joe’s parting words, “I don’t have a mind with room for what were done to you.”