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Crestfall is a play that caused disgust and protestations when it was first performed at the Gate Theatre in 2003, and this new performance by Druid on the Abbey’s Peacock Stage perfects that beautiful outrage. Crestfall abandons the glorious Kathleen Ni Houlihan and provides a darker and more insidious image of women in Ireland dealing with domestic abuse, prostitution, animal cruelty and extreme violence. Even if the story is hyperbolic and crude, the language and acting draws one in.

The story unfolds through rhyming monologues delivered by three women who encapsulate the dilapidated urban environment they live in. We are transfixed by the rhythm of the story and single person movement; brought on a journey of vulgarity and scrapping all notions of traditional femininity.

Olive tells her story of extreme promiscuity and having multiple affairs, punishing her husband’s sensitivity as weakness. Even when her husband threatens to commit suicide, she walks away to one of her lovers. Alison deals with her unfaithful husband and her young son, whom she attempts to protect from the threatening community. And Tilly, a prostitute and drug addict, talks about being abused by her pimp and being coerced into an abortion. The story may not be an easy one for audiences to digest but the three actresses perform so well and convey such extreme emotion that you are pulled into it.

The stage and lighting embellish the acting: the set appears to be an orange corrugated iron container, embodying the trapped lives the women live. The lighting, focusing on each woman as they deliver their monologue, casts lingering, stretched shadows. Each tensed muscle casts a threatening dark display on the orange background.

The acting animates everything brilliantly; extreme violence, depictions of sex as lustful wildness, animal cruelty that shocks, Tarantino-esque blood and gore. The failing of the play is the near unbelievability and grotesque nature of the story. Perhaps O’Rowe intends it as an exaggerated and fantastical social commentary, but after the 70 minutes finish, you walk onto Abbey Street and you don’t really believe that the story could happen in real life. Regardless, it is a performance worth experiencing. You may be anxious during it, perhaps nauseous, but you want to see what happens next.