Writer & Director: David Horan
It is undeniably true that David Horan’s Sandpaper on Sunburn poses questions around identity, relationships, and the relationship of the personal to the political, although your feelings about the play will most likely rest in how believable you find the characters that pose the questions, and the extent to which you can tolerate the questions not being answered. Perhaps this is the role that theatre should play, that it shouldn’t be providing clear answers in two hours, but it’s impossible not to feel a nagging frustration that so much good work leaves the audience with so little to grasp on the way out.
In the post-referendum glow of 2018, Freya (Éilis McLaughlin) has moved back in with her parents, Tony (Anthony Brophy) and Colette (Amelia Crowley), because her relationship with Sonya (Honi Cooke) has broken down. The play begins casually, almost playfully, with Sonya hoping that Freya will join her in searching for their missing cat. Characters are revealed slowly, through skilful, believable dialogue, but the tension ratchets up when Freya’s sister Helen (Clare Monnelly) expresses her fear that her young son Jack is autistic. Intrigued by the symptoms, Freya begins to believe the same about herself.
This is the true core of the play, which makes the 2018 setting somewhat inexplicable – far more than abortion or female liberation, Sandpaper spends most of its time on Freya’s issues and relationships, a key to which, she feels, may be a diagnosis of autism. Is this an explanation for her way of seeing and acting in the world? Or might she be a frighteningly entitled sociopath? Is neurodivergence, or even feminism, simply another identifier by which people try to explain their actions? The play never answers these, and instead buys a somewhat cheap emotional ending. This is disappointing because Freya and Sonya’s relationship problems are revealed in careful yet explosive ways; there is evident love between them, but also a mutual inability to avoid picking at emotional scabs.
The performances are all solid, with Monnelly and Brophy excelling, and this is necessary for a play that is so rooted in dialogue and character that it must be called old fashioned, despite the threat that this may come off as a criticism. The decision to half-raise the house lights between scenes in Act 2 was a strange one that should be corrected, as it causes an unnecessary break, which again serves only to undercut the very positive aspects of the show.
Runs Until 5th October 2024.
The Review's Hub Score
Enjoyable, uncomfortable, yet unfulfilling
