Cork play on adoption leads to emotional family reunion

A Cork audience was stunned to silence last week after a performance by a woman who had been adopted led to her unexpectedly meeting her biological uncle and cousins for the first time.

Actor and playwright Noelle Brown was born into the Cork mother-and-baby home of Bessborough in the 1960s and adopted when she was eight weeks old.

Some 35 years later, Noelle decided to embark on a search for identity and trace her biological family.

Though her biological mother is deceased, Noelle made contact with her aunt. She also decided to write a play based on her experience, called Postscript.

This week, unknown to Ms Brown, her biological uncle travelled to The Everyman theatre in Cork to see the play.

After the performance, a post-show discussion took place, during which questions from the audience were encouraged.

An elderly gentleman raised his hand and enquired as to whether Ms Brown had ever met any of her mother’s siblings, other than the aunt mentioned in the play. When she said she had not, the man revealed he was one of them — her biological uncle.

“I was overwhelmed emotionally when my uncle identified himself, but I was also happy that all my birth family that were present were supportive of the play and understood what I was trying to do with this piece of theatre,” said Ms Brown.

“It was already an extraordinary experience, bringing this show to Cork, where I was born, grew up, and where the information on my birth was held. Both my adoptive family and my birth family came to see the show in Cork and I am so pleased that they did.”

Ms Brown spoke with her uncle after the show and also got to meet her cousins — some of whom were even pictured in a photograph Noelle uses in her play.

“The photograph is a family photo and shows my birth mother the day she went into the Bessborough mother-and-baby home, so I am in that photograph too,” said Ms Brown. “While most of my adoption story has been told through Postscript, I am reminded, because of incidents like this, that the story still goes on and I am thankful to have come this far,” she said.

Members of the audience were taken aback with how the story continued to unfold in front of them even after the final curtain was drawn. The Everyman’s artistic director,  Julie Kelleher, said: “You kind of thought: ‘Is this really happening?’ and it was. It was incredible.”