AT around 8.50 pm in Theatre 2, the audience was heartily laughing away at Susie aka Priscilla’s one woman play.

And then five minutes later, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. It wasn’t a tear jerker moment. It was a deep sense of empathy and upset for what she told the audience.

For forty minutes, the packed audience had enjoyed this sassy, honest monologue on life bring up two children.

Much of it revolved around childbirth and the day to day routines of bringing up her babies and her boys.

This play was well scripted, good timing and engaged the audience throughout. In many ways it set the scene for the key five minutes. Bring up two boys is not the stuff of Insta moments and life hacks. It can be draining. And it is clear that Priscilla’s key coping mechanism was her sense of humour.

The key five minutes detailed the break down of her marriage and being left alone at 34 weeks pregnant. It was a key moment in the play and it genuinely moved the audience. Not in a Hallmark movie of the weekend sort of way but it really reached into the soul of the audience members.

And that is a rare achievement and pays testament to Priscilla’s acting ability, her delivery and perhaps most of all her honesty.

But above all this was funny, spirited and honest. It made the audience laugh (even those of her friends she had mentioned).

We think it made a lot of women feel reassured and more comfortable in their own skin. Oh and they had a glass of wine and laughed a lot.

It is also testimony to the culture at the Harlow Playhouse that they support plays like this.