Soho Theatre, London – until 8 December
Reviewed by Antonia Hebbert
5*****
From the moment that Caitriona Ennis bursts onto the stage as the motormouth character of Iona, you sense that this is going to be a theatrical whirlwind that sweeps you helplessly along. Actually it isn’t a stage but a narrow performance space between the audience on two sides (traverse set-up). It is very effectively used and never feels awkward – just relentlessly claustrophobic, like the dead-end Dublin housing estate of Crumlin in which Lisa Carroll’s play is set. Iona is talkative, needy and uncool, and her best friend is Pingu – speechless and non-binary, and played with sweet expressiveness by Elise Heaven. They are both total misfits in Crumlin and decide to escape to London. When the news of their plan gets out, two predatory boys in their social circle compete to trick Iona into bed. Colin Campbell and Peter Newington are utterly convincing as Trix and Pockets, whose blinkered ambition is just for status and power in their violent and drug-ridden community. Also in the picture is Iona’s one-time best friend Toller (Sade Malone, also excellent), who at first appears a sort of monster – a queen bee, bully, and fully capable of holding her own. But as the play progresses, she becomes more complicated – she knows how to survive in Crumlin, but also can also see its limitations.
Events unfold with excruciating realism. If you have been a teenager, you will have seen this combination of desperation, manipulation and bullying, weaponised for today’s young with mobiles and social media. It’s painful to watch but also laugh-out-loud funny, with a fabulously grim scene of a seduction going wrong. Director Debbie Hannan extracts every ounce of energy from the cast as she takes us into this vivid world of young people fighting to make sense of their lives when the odds are stacked against them.