Writer: Eliza Ammann
Director: Grainne Robson
I Fucking Love Bowling! may be the wrong title for Eliza Ammann’s play, perhaps bringing in audiences keen to hear stories about strikes and lanes and bowling shoes. Instead, the subject of this strange play is the war in Ukraine, although it takes an awfully long time to get to this destination. The main character V’s speech in the latter half of the show is stirring but what comes before is just too confusing.
The first five minutes or so, where V, played by Ammann, talks to their great-great-grandfather, is entirely in Ukrainian before a Pan-like figure appears to ask V questions to discover if V is ready to join the rest of the world. V has been in a kind of limbo for the last 20-odd years where they have been visited by people passing through. V rates musicians but doesn’t think much of actors. Whether the audience is meant to find any of this funny is unclear as the jokes fail to land.
V never makes ‘parole’ because they confess that they don’t like bowling. When the scene is repeated a few minutes later, they still don’t like bowling. The audience is left to guess what bowling represents. Is the patriarchy? Or a symbol of American imperialism?
There are plenty of other distractions before we get to the meat of the play: a few odd dances perhaps demonstrating the violent tendencies of men and an overlong retelling of the Adam and Eve story by Pan. In the impassioned monologue, V discusses their own Ukrainian ancestry and how the current war has made Ukrainian people feel more accepted in the West. And in a brave move, V conflates the liberation of women with the freedom of their own country.
However, V’s battle for justice comes across as too individual at times. Their search for internal spirit almost comes at the cost of communal power. Only in the rousing final minute is there a glimpse of what the collective can achieve.
Runs until 8 September 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Confusing
