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Showing posts with the label Aoife Lennon

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High anxiety: Collapse - Riverside Studios

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It’s a brave or maybe slightly provocative production to use Hammersmith Bridge on their artwork for a show called Collapse, which is about how everything collapses—poorly maintained bridges, relationships, and jobs. Nothing works. That’s probably too close to home for Hammersmith residents stuck with a magnificently listed and useless bridge on their front door. It gets even weirder when you realise the piece is staged in what looks like a meeting room with a bar. However, keeping things together in the most unlikely of circumstances is at the heart of Allison Moore's witty and engaging four-hander, which is currently having a limited engagement at Riverside Studios . The piece opens with Hannah (Emma Haines) about to get an injection from her husband (Keenan Heinzelmann). They’re struggling for a baby, and he’s struggling to get out of bed. But he managed to give her a shot of hormones before she started worrying about the rest of the day. She’s unsure she will keep her job with ...

Perma-austerity: Killymuck and Box Clever @bunkertheatreuk

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The Bunker is currently presenting a double bill of what life is like for women in Britain with less opportunity. The two monologues chart growing up in different eras of inequality. But both are gripping as they mix anger, evocative storytelling and humour in equal measure. They're terrific pieces of writing with strong performances. First up is Killymuck, written by Kat Woods. Niamh (Aoife Lennon) is living on a housing estate that was the site of a paupers graveyard in 1970s Northern Ireland. Locals think the estate is cursed. But there are plenty of real-life causes to her problems. Her mum is surviving on benefits. Her dad suffers from alcoholism. Teachers at school are only too keen to discriminate, even if she is clever. And violence is never far away. There's salvation with the occasional babysitting job. Particularly with the neighbour when she's out turning tricks as she pays better than anyone. Lennon conveys the passion, anger and humour of Wood...