A heart wrenching dark comedy
Molly is the story of a young woman who works at Greggs, parties on the weekends and goes through the unthinkable.
The set up is simple – we meet Molly in all her Greggs garb and we even get to see her love of sausage rolls. We learn she’s single, loves her job and all the regulars, and on the weekend indulges in a bit of cocaine.
The writing is very human, funny and beautifully put together. The structure is fluid and the passing of time clear. Actually, one of my favourites is the week that goes by in a blink of an eye.
Molly’s weekends are projected on the back screen via a secret camera in her bathroom, making the audience creepy observers of intimate moments. It is here we also experience Molly’s relationship with Dave in the form of drunken messages.
Sundays were often explored in complete darkness with a ticking clock on the back wall – a device mainly for the character to get changed I would think. This often felt a little awkward and ended up dipping the energy in the room.
Molly, played by Katie Akerman, is almost a caricature and it is here where I felt most disconnected. Because of that, when the distressing themes happen later in the show the emotional pay off didn’t achieve its potential.
The voicemail section was heart wrenching – as a survivor myself, the parallels were identifiable and I felt the most connected to Molly in this section.
I’d recommend checking out the trigger warnings before going, but this feels like a story that should be seen.