Everything Falls
Charlie Hogan and Lauren Larkin in Everything Falls. Image, Ste Murray
****
Everything Falls, written and created by Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan of Brokentalkers, along with Shaun Dunne, relies on a tried but not always to be trusted formula. Dunne’s Ted Talk, Survey Monkey format yielding a slanted tale. One garnered from real life interviews with those having lived experience of family care. The ever likeable and eternally boyish Dunne directly addressing his audience. Clever wordplay on the word care muddying the waters, suggesting a lot more going on than is actually going on. For what Dunne’s really thinking about is the carer, often at the expense of the cared. Dunne’s narrative alter ego, a sensitive Creative Writing facilitator, endlessly asking questions as if questions were answers. His questionnaire curiously narrow in its scope. Sean Millar’s superlative soundtrack played live onstage by the excellent Dan Fitzpatrick, Maud Lee, Bryan O’Connell and Kim Porcelli providing warmth, depth and texture not always present in facts substituting for truths. The whole elevated into something deeply moving by a stunning Lauren Larkin and dancer Charlie Hogan.
Centring around a middle aged couple, beautifully rendered by Larkin and Hogan, a husband approaching sixty succumbs to some unnamed illness leaving his wife to care for him and, more importantly, unable to manage her own self care. But as soon the point is made, the case begins to unravel. What illness? No idea, but one making it seemingly impossible for Larkin to take one hour a week for an Online Creative Writing course she signed up for. Why can’t she attend? We’re never entirely sure, or rather, convinced. There’s grown up children along with talk of available professional support, but the children don’t appear to have been asked and her husband is too proud to take help. All suggesting not so much an unsupported carer as a woman for whom marriage is a Stockholm Syndrome of obligated habit since she was fourteen. Carer allowances, medical expenses, dignity, hygiene, job loss; none of these are adequately addressed. The devastation of caring and the outrage at the estimated 20 billion euro a year saved by the government via unpaid family care reduced to a cry for an hour of “me” time. Yet if Everything Falls risks devaluing the case for the carer, it practically eclipses the cared. The carer rendered as victim; the cared for, or dying, resembling inconvenient flies in the carer’s self-care ointment. The cared for’s lived experience muted. Their fears, their shame, their concerns and worries at the impact on their loved one's lives given little voice A deafening silence that haunts the heart of Everything Falls.
Charlie Hogan and Lauren Larkin in Everything Falls. Image, Ste Murray
If thematically troubled, theatrically Everything Falls proves far more successful. Even so, whilst repetition evokes the unending loop of an unchanging everyday, and questions reveal the constant need to be reminded of what’s been forgotten, the over reliance on such entry level techniques deadens the claustrophobic isolation being aimed for. It takes Millar’s wonderfully evocative music serving as a near constant companion to reveal the invisible heart pulsing with emotion. Echoed in some simple choreographic moments and a handful of excellent songs. Music and movement merging beautifully in a slow duet in which remembering and forgetting, and the handling of exposition, are marvellously managed. Hogan and Larkin swaying like late night lovers in a honky tonk after closing time, dancing seductively to a half drunk guitar. Larkin tremendous as the harried, matter of fact carer with a sense of obligation, enlivening what are primarily answers to limiting questions when not repeating the same lines endlessly. Hogan, an accomplished dancer, saying so much with so little. Movement director Eddie Kay’s short, choreographed passages of putting on a coat, emerging from a fridge, rearranging cups and plates or shuddering as Larkin confesses she’s considered leaving see Hogan stirringly reveal glimpses of what remains hidden. Ger Clancy’s superb two level set adorned with the accoutrements of care - washing lines, beds, shopping bags - cleverly lit by Dara Hoban’s lights. Sarah Foley’s costumes adding the finishing touches to a visual representation rich in reference and suggestion.
Often, it’s when it breaks from sounding like a social workers evaluation form that Everything Falls catches your breath. Larkin’s shouted answer in her duet with Hogan elevating the experience to a living reality. Likewise, drummer Bryan O’Connell’s public address about caring for a child and an elderly father. Like a series of creative writing exercises Everything Falls feels like prep work but never the full story. Focusing on one character even though two are onstage. Yet the chemistry between Larkin and Hogan is palpable, as is the alchemy of movement and music. All framed by Brokentalkers’ theatrical ingenuity. Elevating this flawed meditation into something genuinely moving and heartfelt.
Everything Falls by Brokentalkers and Shaun Dunne, written and created by Feidlim Cannon, Gary Keegan and Shaun Dunne, runs at The Project Arts Centre until November 23.
For more information visit Project Arts Centre.
