Frigid – Bewleys Cafe Theatre – Review
by Frank L.

Frigid – written and performed by Rosa Bowden
Until March 25th, 2023. SOIREE SHOW at 7pm on March 16th, 2023. Mon-Sat at 1pm

Winner of the Little Gem Award at the Dublin Fringe Festival

As the programme states “Niamh O’Reilly is still a Fridget – she’s never been kissed – and at 14, she’d want to hurry up”. Set in 2007 – “when feminism wasn’t hip and consent was just a form you got your parents to sign to get you off PE.”  But this is all about to change as Niamh is going to meet up with her girl gang, Casey, Steph and Jen, in Casey’s house before going to a teenage disco. The stage consists of glittering streamers hanging along the walls with large lip balloons hanging from the ceiling so as to keep everyone focussed on the business at hand.

But to get things going, a DJ (Ciaran Gallagher) has some interaction with the audience to warm things up. Niamh enters and after a brief introduction, she starts into her tale of teenage life, with Casey’s mother answering the door. She is a brusque woman of little charm. She is the first of the many characters, male and female, that Bowden will introduce us to as Niamh goes towards her date with destiny. The peer pressures on Niamh are great. Therefore, her outfit changes from a frumpish, everyday frock to a garment more likely to attract the attention of a member of the opposite sex. Bowden keeps the interchange of the chats between Niamh and her girlfriends going at a merry clip as a selection of teenage boys come into and out of focus. Although the underlying text is one of sexual adventure, Niamh’s encounters in 2007 would not be of too much concern to those who are frightened of children discovering sex.

Frigid won the Little Gem award at the Dublin Fringe 2022 having initially emerged from Scene+Heard. It now adds a youthful glow to Bewley’s Cafe Theatre. It captures the many award moments of your early teenage years and is a happy trip down memory lane.