When to terminate a baby?

How can a young mum-to-be cope with the pressure to maintain a career, a life she loves, yet somehow cope with the arrival of new, unplanned life?

This week’s Oran Mor play deals with the issue, but with an added dramatic storyline.

The Love I Feel is Red by Sabrina Mahfouz tells the story of 29 year-old Mona.

Mona (Janet Etuk) is a free runner, a lady who jumps over natural obstacles, but she could never have anticipated the obstacle she encounters in the form of her boyfriend Ty’s mother Susan, (Heather Williams).

That’s because Mona and Susan meet up in the wake of Ty’s death.

While Susan is rendered helpless with grief, Mona reveals a dark secret; she was pregnant, and had a termination just two days before her partner died.

“The play is about this encounter between these two ladies, from very different worlds, who have been brought together by this strange circumstance,” says Janet.

“It’s about the decision to tell the mum she had had a termination, and the impact of that.”

Why did Mona choose to have a termination?

“This is a young lady who is happy with her life and her free running and the excitement this world offers her.

“As a result she feels she is far from ready to have a baby. Nor does she have the right environment, the lifestyle she feels to bring a baby up in.

“But Ty, we discover, doesn’t feel this way at all. He wanted the baby. He wanted to share the experience of the baby with his mum.”

Janet adds; “There isn’t a right or wrong in this issue. The play doesn’t take sides. It leaves the audience to decide for itself.”

The play reveals the complexities of such a decision. “We learn Mona and Ty go to the clinic together, because he loves her and he wants to be with her.”

The theme of guilt runs through the play. Mona points out it’s a storyline that will resonate with so many women, this issue of choice and what will make someone happy in the long run.

Does the race issue come into the picture, when Mona and Susan meet.

“No, I don’t see it,” says 27 year-old Janet, who is of Nigerian descent.

“Mona and Susan’s worlds are so wonderfully different, but race doesn’t really come into it. It’s more about the different backgrounds, different habits, and sensibilities, and how these women form their views.”

Playing a character who has had to make such a demanding decision, and having to contend with a distraught mother, must take its toll?

“Oh god, yes,” says Surrey-born Janet, who graduated, with a first class HONS degree from acting college.

“You have to do your best not to let the play affect you outside of rehearsals.

“But I’m always drawn to plays which are raw and honest and leave people to take from them what they will.

“When you read a play like this you feel lucky, and then you do your best to get into character.”

Rehearsing the play, which also examines the nature of relationships, has certainly seen Janet reflect on her own life.

“I don’t have any kids, and I would love to have them at some point,” she explains.

“But I understand Mona’s dilemma completely; when are you ready to have kids? Is your career going well? Are you sure you’re in love? How guilty will I feel if I don’t have the baby.”

“At least one of these questions will apply to someone in the audience, and I’ve certainly had to ask myself what would happen if I became pregnant.

“You know that suddenly, your whole life will change.”

Janet always wanted to act, from an early age. “I love it even more now,” she says. “

“These serious roles you take on allow you to find out so much more about yourself, and life in general.

“And I can’t get enough of characters such as Mona.”

She adds, laughing; “Having said all that, I’d also love to star in a rom-com.”

• The Love I Feel is Red, Oran Mor, until Saturday.