Dead Centre’s Lippy was a production of ideas and images.
Sometimes incredibly moving, sometimes mystifying obtuse, it played with the structures of narrative drama and the theatrical experience – even throwing in an onstage interval for good measure.
Opening disconcertingly with a tongue-in-cheek post-show discussion about lip-reading the tone swiftly got darker as the true story of four Irish women who barricaded themselves away and starved themselves to death in 2000 took over the stage.
The contrast was striking and disturbing, as the actors broke through the fourth wall before building it back up again.
Narratives were created around the women, despite the performers admitting midway through that no-one really knew what happened – culminating in an overlong but poetic monologue told by a giant projected mouth apparently placing the blame on the women’s father.
At times the production was frustrating – why did the lip-reader suddenly take a role in a moment of slapstick about a leaking roof?
But occasionally the simplest act became horrifying - as when the sound technician wilfully invaded the women’s space with a leaf-blower.
Whether we as an audience understood anything more about the women’s motivations wasn’t really the point.
But aside from creating brain-searing images it was hard to understand what the production was trying to say about the act – other than underlining its true horror in an unforgettable performance.
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