The three stand in the dim light as we take our seats. Discovering characters on stage is not a new thing. But when Sorcha starts talking there is the realisation that she herself is talking to us. Matthew and Aine follow. In what is more of a foreword than a prologue we get a glimpse of their own past lives, and we will get more as two mention reading their diaries to research the show, the remaining one working from memory as he never kept a diary. It is one way of gaining our attention, and seeing the people not only the performer. The diary motif is kept up as we move from each of the three's point of view and experience; large pages being turned back and forth to reveal different backdrops and settings on Gemma McGuinness' apt and creative centerpiece. The remaining area is empty save for a table and chair. Niamh Cooke-Escapil's lighting design shines from above and the sides to create open and closed areas, the brightness jarring during one rough scene where Aine is being physically pushed and pulled by a bully. It is more documentary, or rather social document, than anything else, presenting the events, real, devised, or both, to us as they feel them and remember them. It moves at a slow pace making its over one hour running time feel more.
Trying to fit in somehow, with some group, is at the heart of it, starting off with Sorcha fancying a boy and following a plan to find him; Matthew not being good at relationships, finding ways for people to hate him, or hoping through sex chat that they want him. This scene, discussing a threesome with a girl, something they want to do in real life, has a hollowness to it, ending with the pleading 'so you want to have a threesome with me?'.
It is not easy theatre, in varying senses of the word, but we all know what it is like to want to be part of something, especially in our teen years, and finding that something such as Seapunk which Matthew explains well, making us realise that for him he was part of something. A common theme is not having friends in school, or making others feel small, or outside the group, based on looks and likes. Subcultures are looked at, the need to express yourself in your own way without being judged with a group of friends is, for me anyway, at the heart and soul of it.
A bookend to the evening are the analysis of themselves, where they are now, from what we have seen, or what they understand; Sorcha wondering is the Sorcha in the diaries is a construct of the person she felt she was, or wanted to be. Hinting at an idea that we create what we want people to see, maybe at the expense of who we want to be. Through this experience they now belong, if only through the sharing of their collective experiences.
It is very much an exploratory work, a different form that is more episodic than narrative driven, emotions, feelings and the need to explore at the heart of it. Not quite docu-drama, more social document, it does give an idea of what it feels to be truly on the fringes, friendless and still needing, wanting at a desperate level, to be part of something, no matter what that something is.
Devised and performed by Aine O'Hara, Matthew O'Dwyer, and Sorcha Flanagan
Set Design: Gemma McGuinness
Lighting Design: Niamh Cooke-Escapil
Producer: David Doyle
Production Group:This Is Happening Collective
