Dublin Theatre Festival 2024: Safe House

Kate Gilmore in Safe House. Image, Ste Murray

****

Even Enda Walsh, writer and director of Safe House, co-created with composer Anna Mullarkey, admits he has no real idea as to what it is. It’s not theatre in the conventional sense, nor is it a concert. All you can say with a high degree of certainty is that it’s a one woman musical. The story of a girl called Grace and a handball alley. Then there’s her childhood growing up in Barna in Galway, a trip to Dublin, a menacing boyfriend, sex, Snow White and chasing dragons. You can also say that it’s bold, brave, a tad longer than it needed to be, and a technical tour de force. Delivering a visual and musical journey through a personal hell Dante would have envied. All built around a crowning performance from an illuminating Kate Gilmore.

Kate Gilmore in Safe House. Image, Ste Murray

Musically, Safe House is a song cycle; Mallarkey’s one tone, dark hymns making for a durational ask on account of overplaying their hand. Visually, Walsh’s direction suggests a graphic novel. An Alan Moore mash of music, madness and mayhem. Images breaking out of the frame; Gilmore, with her child cassette recorder and microphone, utterly haunting as she sings in the aisles. Or frames within frames; TV monitors, a safe room, or Snow White’s coffin where Gilmore stretches out, replete with rose. Grace’s life a puzzle unfolding as an endless performance. A fallen princess singing her heart out to escape her past and present into fantasies of a future. Maybe, someday, her prince will come and take her away from the booze and drugs and sex for money. Except Barna boys aren’t princes. More hyenas surrounding a wounded animal.

Kate Gilmore in Safe House. Image, Ste Murray

A story told through song and images, Safe House makes for a dark tale not likely to appeal to anyone in search of a happy ending. Innocence crashing in an unsafe world and shattering into a million pieces. Grace’s Princess gown traded for a streetwise tracksuit as she tries hold on to the last shard of hope. The tender ending bittersweet; heartbreaking, speaking to what should be, perhaps too late for Grace, but not for others. Set and costumes by Katie Davenport a masterclass in brilliance creating a rabbit hole you fall helplessly into. Echoed in Adam Silverman’s superlative lights, Jack Phelan’s excellent video design, and Helen Atkinson’s superb sound design. Together creating a wonderland of hell with many moving parts, each executed with on point precision.

Kate Gilmore in Safe House. Image, Ste Murray

Mostly, it’s Gilmore. Her natural expressiveness restrained to reflect a painter's model as much as a living performer. Her performance more a Coppélia come to life. Relying not on text, or lyrics, but on body language, eyes and facial expression to craft images more akin to poetry than prose. Walking a tightrope between realism and abstraction. Gilmore’s singing showing an undercurrent of power that has you wanting it to break free from Mullarkey’s sometimes restrictive register. Her heartfelt Grace, quirky, unsettling, a doll child trapped in a woman's body striving to live amongst the stars. Haunting, vulnerable, wildly passionate. Just like Gilmore’s outstanding performance.

Safe House, by Enda Walsh and Anna Mullarkey, runs at The Peacock Stage of The Abbey Theatre as part of  Dublin Theatre Festival 2024 until October 12.

For more information visit Dublin Theatre Festival 2024 or The Abbey Theatre