“Ghost Host Stranger Ghost: An Innovative Endeavour
Project Arts Centre, Dublin
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Once Off Productions presents a unique high-concept project created by Kate Heffernan. The play, a nomadic event, moves around the Dublin Theatre Festival. It exploits the opportunities provided by others’ stages for its afternoon performances. The introductory act takes place amidst the musical instruments set for Thisispopbaby’s 0800 Cupid at the Project Arts Centre. Maeve O’Mahony, acting as one of three flatmates in the plot, explains that, as with residential renting, there are certain boundaries around what they can utilise and smells they can leave.
The metatheatrical tactic aims to highlight the issue of housing instability faced by numerous young individuals in contemporary Ireland. The show will be relocated to other venues like Smock Alley and then The Gate in the coming days. Heffernan, as described in the show’s brochure, is primarily interested in the nursing-home support policy, Fair Deal. The scheme by the Irish Government allows families to let their elderly relatives’ homes to aid in financing their nursing requirements.
O’Mahony’s role is of a person who prepares indexes for a publisher, living in mild discomfort alongside an old friend, Finbarr Doyle, who is in the cheese industry. They are indulging in typical flatmate small talk when a food delivery person, played by Shadaan Felfeli arrives. After a series of events, he eventually becomes a resident of the house.
The lightweight script cleverly combines the specific with the general. Details about the previous tenant’s belongings being stored in areas the dwellers never visit are discussed. According to O’Mahony’s character, there will be no respite time if the property owner passes away. The property will be sold immediately with family sifting through the personal belongings while planning the funeral.
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In the contemporary comical romantic drama, “Trifled”, it seems that every character is in need of rescue. In this story centred around group living, the focus is mainly on the mundane issues and sufferings typical to cohabitation. The personality created by Doyle suspects the newcomer of an unsettling behaviour in the shower. Staring too long at an overly close screen is causing the person in charge of index compilation to become mildly mad. In a humorous touch, their most recent roommate recommends opting out from unnecessary bulk emails as a means to ease daily strain. These events unfold in sync with the incessant ring of a landline, presumably used by fraudsters trying to reach out to the house owner who’s currently in an institution.
The interactions are gracefully executed by skilled performers who seem to thoroughly understand one another. However, disappointingly, the tension isn’t high enough, and the plot seems weak. The show appears to be more of an exploratory exercise, developed to create characters and shape relationships for future, more entertaining escapades – essentially what would be referred to as a pilot in the TV world.
This initial episode, indeed, forms part of a broader scheme. It would be interesting to discover how the performers adapt to different sets of varying complexity and size, especially considering they have no practice in that afternoon’s setting. All in all, it’s an experiment meriting time.
This continues across multiple locations as a part of the Dublin Theatre Festival until Sunday, October 13th.