Writer: Leanne Devlin
Director: Emma Copland
This one-woman show, written and performed by Leanne Devlin, is currently performing in the charming catacomb cellar theatre below The Curtains Up pub before touring dates in Ireland.
With a simple set and props of just a cleaner’s overall, gloves, a mop and bucket and, of course, a yellow Caution When Wet sign, Devlin tells us the story of an Irish overlooked jobbing actor. Unlike many in her acting class, three years after graduation actual call-backs have been increasingly sparse, or non-existent. So, she has moved back to her small hometown, and back in with her mother, to wait for a call from her agent whilst working in a local supermarket as a cleaner to make ends meet.
Our protagonist falls, as if hit by a thunderbolt, head over heels in love with a fellow shop worker and what follows is a sometimes racy and sometimes heartbreaking, but always relatable, comedic journey. We follow her in the ups and downs of her burgeoning relationship with love from invisibility, through the electric first touch, the embarrassment of awkward first moves and bad kisses to inevitably ending up in bed together.
It is the relatability of this character which Devlin brings to life superbly that is the essence of this 60-minute performance. Throughout there is a running dialogue of her thoughts as she obsesses over each meeting, each touch, each flirt or message. Away from love, she sits for hours waiting for his reply exuding anxiety or a call, staring at the phone for hours and hilariously switching from optimism to bleak conclusion, over-analysing every aspect of this obsession with love. And if no reply has come, the unavoidable pretence and nonchalance back at work when they are together. Are these mixed signals that he is giving? Is she reading them correctly or is he just stringing her along? These self-doubts are all-consuming but keep the audience laughing as she battles her thoughts.
Devlin has a way with wry self-mockery. Her character’s bawdy, non-feminist approach to life and the chase for love means she quickly drops auditions and looks forward, to her 40 hours per week in her minimum-pay, zero-hour contract job, cutting ties with her agent and former acting friends back in the city. In doing so Devlin is encouraging the audience to reflect on the many difficult realities that can crush hopeful young passions, thereby bringing a subtle and current political edge.
Runs until 2 September 2023
