Thursday, April 30, 2020

We’re in Here review: A sly contemporary play about temporary disconnection and lasting gratitude

The narratives of a drama facilitator, a counsellor, and a son remembering his mother intermingle in John Doran's consoling new play. Photo: John Doran

★ ★ ★ ★

How does theatre adjust to change? In the arch opening scene of John Doran’s new play We’re in Here, a man speaks trustingly into a webcam from his Dublin bedroom, on a connection that’s difficult to hear. When he plugs in a microphone, sweet birdsong floods in from outside, and an “astheatre” graphic appears beside his laptop like a portmanteau opening credit. An art form is adapting. 

Seen in three parts on YouTube, Doran’s pre-recorded production doesn’t carry the same risk as a performance being streamed live. But there are a few gambits in here that prevent it from feeling like cinema or television either. The play doesn’t mention quarantine per se, but it alludes to the shutdown of theatres. “Welcome to …, and this performance …,” says a front-of-house announcer, with grim absurdity, as if speaking from a wasteland of closed playhouses. 

From his desk, Doran plays an approachable drama facilitator, speaking about the importance of not letting students over-idealise him. He mentions a friend who transformed their Instagram page into an overbearing shrine to their dead mother. The serious voiceover of the front-of-house announcer cuts in, giving information about mental health charities - and even Doran’s own contact details. 

Narratives begin to slyly intermingle in part two, where Doran plays a sure-footed counsellor who often prays to his dead mother. He has a session with a client in Kilkenny (a bruised Eddie Murphy) who has recently left his girlfriend and her young son. The session pieces together a complex relationship, and how she got pregnant while cheating with her ex-husband. “I don’t hate the child. It’s just too weird,” says Murphy’s man with guilt, before the camera cuts to him, a picture of despair.  

With sad allusions to closeted homosexuality and child wellbeing, the play revisits a historical episode in part three - when Joe Dolan (an embittered Paul Reid) warned in 1968 that young people wouldn't feel safe if rumours about him being gay weren’t put to rest. The magazine article is read aloud with satire resembling more the intertextual storytelling of contemporary theatre than cinema. 

Doran is one our finest comic performers, often appearing in broad comedies. But there’s a rich subtly to his understated performance here. In the final scene he plays a man recalling a childhood in Kilkenny, under the caring protection of a lone mother. He declares his lasting gratitude through the video link, an expression that feels consoling at a time when we're all in camera frames, trying to stay connected. 


We're in Here can be seen by emailing johndoranireland@gmail.com. 

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