It’s Always Your Bleedin’ Own
Space Upstairs, Project Arts Centre, Dublin
★★★☆☆
When Kian Harris, the London fashion upstart in Breadline’s zingy comedy, receives a phone call from Dublin, it presents him with a dilemma. Escaped into a busy career, and keeping a distance from home, he’s in no rush to design a wedding dress for his childhood neighbour from St Mary’s Mansions. “I’m one of your own,” she softly reminds him.
The tug of home is further complicated by recent history, as Thommas Kane Byrne’s script shows a Dublin community reeling from the riots of 2023. “How do I go back to a city drowning in fear?” says Kian, played by the ferociously good newcomer Cameron Hogan.
By contrast, his new client Amber (a note-perfect Ericka Roe) is less concerned with the capital’s tumult than with making a statement. Loathed by many, and accused of being a gold digger marrying an older man, she’s looking to pull off a spectacle that will make her haters salivate – all while having an affair with a besotted man recently tuned into mindfulness and self-reflection to find his place in the world (played by an excellent Lloyd Cooney).
This is the latest instalment in Thommas Kane Byrne’s fabulous version of Dublin’s inner city, wherein multiple generations strut like divas from Hollywood’s Golden Age, chasing intense passions for showbusiness and fashion. Kian’s designs are said to be a celebration of his community, in collections lovingly elevating and embracing big jewellery and tacky combinations. Appropriately, Ellen Kirk’s set resembles a runway, bringing added pizazz to the play’s characters as they saunter and pose.
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There is no shortage of attitude, as impressive dialogue often releases vulgar word play (“I worked my Helen Hunt off to get where I am today”). The script seems less attentive to the mechanics of plot, though, as Amber dives into doubt about her marriage (“I’ve more issues than Vogue!”) while Cooney’s admirer and Kian are set on a collision course over a dead peer. Only those attentive to TKB’s previous plays Say Nothin’ to No One and Well That’s What I Heard – now grouped into a trilogy with It’s Always Your Bleedin’ Own – will be able to fill in these crucial character notes, making this latest offering less sturdy when standing alone.
Ronan Phelan, the production’s director, neatly separates scenes that require actors to play multiple roles as the plot builds towards a wild, alcohol-drenched night of dancing, allowing us to see characters at their most self-possessed – but also risking derailing the play itself, as an 11th-hour misunderstanding between Roe and Cooney’s lovers serves as a simplistic red herring.
More cogent is Kian’s story, as a designer creatively blocked and unable to deliver the wedding dress, leading him to spar with Amber. Later, when he finally has his vision, he thanks her. “I’ve never met someone so unapologetically themself,” he says, confirming her to be his muse. That’s TKB’s swooning comedy all over, getting its energy from people, from a city. There’s so much around here that’s inspiring.
It’s Always Your Bleedin’ Own is at Project Arts Centre, Dublin, until Saturday, December 14th
