Writer: Lars Noren
Director: Johan Bark
According to the acclaimed Swedish playwright Lars Noren, there was a special place in hell for theatre critics. I am comforted, therefore, that the Irish premiere of ‘Act’ by the (sadly) recently deceased writer is in Bestseller Café, former historic home of the National Bible Society.
The venue is beautiful. Glass Mask Theatre presents its immersive play to an audience equally and happily immersed in delicious antipasti, wine and coffee. Most often staged alongside another of Noren’s short pieces, ‘Terminal 3’, Johan Bark, on this occasion, allows ‘ACT’ to bask alone in the spotlight.
In direct contrast to the warmth of our genteel surroundings, the stark interrogation room of a West German prison, at the height of the Cold War, is unveiled. A herculean battle of wills ensues between a hunger striking prisoner and her doctor.
Direction is tight and with impressive physicality, the actors make tremendous use of their few props; a swivel chair, lamp, filing cabinet and treatment table. Cascading paperwork is used to dramatic effect with such attention to detail that Mikael Gott’s medical degree lands on our table. Although for the most part, “Lights are always on … there’s never any darkness”, lighting is cleverly used to accent particular moments of intensity throughout. Strains of Debussy’s Clair de Lune are a balm to our overtaxed brains.
There is a madness to this play. Elaine O’Dwyer’s tormented detainee, ‘M’ (“Why don’t you just kill me?”), has been driven to the brink by isolation and the tortuous brutality of her confinement. The increasingly unhinged behaviour of her Physician, ‘G’ (“God is speaking to me in this moment”), played by Kyle Hixons, added to the lack of perspicuity in shifting dates and facts, and is more synonymous with an asylum than a prison.
Of all the issues addressed, a recurring theme of the purgatory of incarceration is most keenly felt. M wears a hospital gown. Her hands are initially tied and her arms are bruised. “The room is very small”, “You’re being watched night and day”. Noren once famously hired three inmates from Tidaholm prison to lend authenticity to parts in a play about captivity. His fascination with imprisonment, Nazis and concentration camps are brought to bear in ACT also. During an interview in 2013, he said “I had a teacher in school who had helped Jews flee out of Denmark … this made a very deep impression on me … I read a lot of books about this.”
This was a knotty play to produce, direct, stage and act but Glass Mask Theatre has pulled it off with great success. It comes as no surprise that Theatre Arts Review awarded them ‘Theatre Company of the Year in 2021’. Given the informality of the space and our proximity to events, it was clear to see the commitment and drive of all the players, from the warm welcome by founders Rex and Migle Ryan to the truly first-rate performances of Elaine O’Dwyer and Kyle Hixons. Their collaboration with Bestseller Café and its immersive theatre experience is a triumphant one.
ACT as a play, however, is at times, abstruse. It is perplexing. With all due respect to the esteemed Marita Lindholm Gochman, is it possible that something has been lost in translation? But then I remember a snippet I came across from the great man himself and so, in the words of Lars Noren; “I try to write in such a way that the characters are just as mysterious and anonymous at the end of the play as they were at the beginning. Not because they are mysterious, irrational, incomprehensible – which they are – but because it is fundamentally impossible to gain knowledge or understanding about what a human being is and why she acts the way she does” (Nov 5th, 2003).
Runs until 20th May 2023.
