Thérèse – Dublin Fringe Festival – Review

Thérèse – Written by Louise Lewis
Directed by Veronica Coburn

Set across two distinct time periods, Thérèse opens in 1989, as army tanks arrive on a housing estate in west Dublin. The play then moves to the present day, where a group of young mothers gather around a local playground while their children play nearby. Among them is Thérèse, a woman carrying the weight of loss and grief, and it is through her story that the two timelines gradually begin to intersect.

This new play is written by and stars Louise Lewis. The four-person cast consists entirely of women of different ages, who gather in and around the playground, sharing fragments of their lives and experiences. Their conversations move between the personal and the political, creating a portrait of women shaped by their surroundings, their memories and the events that have taken place around them.

Rather than presenting a straightforward, factual account of the events, Thérèse adopts what might be described as a poetic approach. The narrative moves rapidly from one subject to another, allowing memories, emotions and fragments of history to bleed into one another. The piece also weaves in elements of Greek mythology, with three of the women at times forming a chorus. This gives the production a heightened, almost ritualistic quality, suggesting that the experiences of these women are part of something larger and more universal.

The fluidity of the storytelling is both one of the production’s strengths and, at times, its weakness. The play asks the audience to move with it rather than providing a clearly signposted narrative, but some of the transitions between periods, characters and different levels of reality can be difficult to follow. A slightly clearer delineation between the narrative shifts would help the audience understand the connections being made without diminishing the deliberately fragmented nature of the piece.

The strongest element of Thérèse, however, is its four performers, Aoibhe Beaumont-Walsh, Amy Conroy, Louise Lewis and Orla Fitzgerald. They move crisply between characters and perspectives, often transforming a scene with only a subtle change in voice or physicality. Their performances are natural and assured, avoiding unnecessary theatricality even when the writing moves into more heightened territory.

There is an intriguing ambition at the heart of Thérèse: to combine contemporary female experience, memory and grief with history and mythology. While the production occasionally leaves its audience searching for firmer narrative ground, its poetic approach and strong ensemble give the piece a distinctive voice. It is an unusual work that requires the audience to surrender to its shifting rhythms rather than demand a conventional linear narrative.

Cast and crew:
Writer: Louise Lewis
Director: Veroncia Coburn
Set & Costume Designer: Deirdre Dwyer
Lighting Designer: Suzie Cummins
Chief LX: Sarah Keane
Sound Designer: Sinéad Diskin
Stage Manager: Stephanie Ryan
Stage Manager: Zoë Reynolds
Cast: Aoibhe Beaumont-Walsh, Amy Conroy, Louise Lewis, Orla Fitzgerald
Producer: Maura O’Keeffe
Line Producer: Bernie Bourke