Kiss me and you’ll see how important I am – Porject Arts Centre – Review

By No More Workhorse on June 5, 2013 • ( Leave a comment )

‘They teach you how to cope, there’s a formula, and if you stick to it, you’ll make it to your next birthday’.

Alex is a troubled young woman suffering from severe depression and mental illness, she’s been to the brink and is out the other side. She’s taking a variety of meds and seems to have found a solid platform and is learning how to live. She has invited a number of friends to her apartment, her ex boyfriend James who she met during her dark days, Cleo her best friend, and Cleo’s younger brother Christopher who also suffers from mental illness.

The title of the play comes from a line by Slyvia Plath and there are a number of mentions of ‘joining Sylvia’ who committed suicide in 1963. This is quite a dark piece of theatre that does not shy away from difficult issues or put a gloss on them, but instead tries to see them for what they are.

The play has a series of monologues, with the cast members walking to a microphone at the side of the stage to tell their tale. The actors talk directly to the audience, with the public forming a silent lurking group of voyeurs, watching this sad reality TV show for our entertainment.Two dance sequences are introduced at various stages during the play, which are quite unexpected but work well and are quite beautiful.

It is a well written play with a variety of sharp and witty one liners and interesting insights into mental illness and the world around us. A few of the actors look more at ease dancing than talking, and I would imagine are from a dance background. Eva O’Conor plays the lead role of Alex and is confident and impressive throughout, and carries the piece along. While the subject matter involved will mean this play is not for everyone, it’s an impressive body of work from this young and interesting theatre company.