Northern Lights review: A dusk-lit drama about two strangers, subtle and compassionate

Stephen Jones's new play brings together two strangers, each harbouring secrets.

Theatre Upstairs, Dublin

Dec 4-15

★ ★ ★


It is not unheard of Stephen Jones to write a fateful meeting between two strangers. His elegant 2015 play From Eden had a chance encounter between two lost souls, their low-key dialogue slowly putting shape on issues too difficult to discuss. It was a gem.

His new offering for Awake & Sing, in association with Theatre Upstairs, treads similar ground. We first see Lloyd (Jones), a karaoke competitor, alone in his flat, trying to perfect the nuances of a Smiths song. It’s a nice touch: how reliable is a principal character dabbling in self-invention? 

One intriguing time jump later, and Lloyd brings home a woman he has just met. They discuss books, UFC fighting and bucket lists. Immaculate is the comic interchange between Seána Kerslake’s polite and friendly Áine, cringing at Jones’s passionate, encouraging and artless Lloyd, while the circumstances of their meeting become clear. (Lloyd’s window overlooks a river where people died by suicide). 

Director Karl Shiels’s absorbing production delivers the subtle script like an indie film. Scenes are separated by the guitar strains of a Sam Fender song. Drafts of dusky blues and oranges come and go in Eoghan Carrick’s beautiful lighting.

A delicately constructed drama, Northern Lights requires considerable work from its players. Kerslake traces the shifting blames of a tragedy difficult to understand. Jones stealthily glimpses a man’s turmoil by his search for a role model, from J.D. Salinger to McGregor. It seems a remarkable twist of fate that they found each other at all, but the plot pushes the coincidences further, revealing that Lloyd already has a surprise connection to Áine’s past boyfriend. As the details come in, you watch it awaiting clarity. 

Frustratingly, that miraculous link between both men never quite arrives, as the script jumps leaps again. Lloyd is exposed as having embellished his story, as if it were the only way for the play to make him open up about his catastrophic marriage. That’ll disappoint those hoping the characters are bound by destiny, not coincidental plotting. 

In other respects, the production doesn’t put a foot wrong. Jones and Kerslake are one of the most whip-smart duos around. And there’s no denying the play’s reassuring faith in the compassion of strangers.