Itch
Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin 8
★★★☆☆
As well as its title, this show comes with warnings about nudity and images of eczema that leave the audience in no doubt about what to expect. And, from the first moments of Itch, the circus artist Christopher McAuley twitches beneath a skin-like fabric to the incessant sound of scratching amplified through the PA.
McAuley’s lifelong atopic eczema has controlled how he behaves and interacts with others. At its most severe it has hospitalised him.
Avoiding biological washing powder, down pillows, plants in the nightshade family, caffeine, sugar, alcohol and gluten can alleviate the symptoms. But it has been almost impossible to avoid stress, both a cause and a result of the condition.
The scars that appeared on McAuley’s body from an early age overwhelmed him as a teenager in Belfast’s divided society. Later, as he emerged into the city’s queer scene, the profound shame he felt about his body meant that sexual encounters were brief – rarely did partners stay overnight – and were preceded by strategic steroid application, to clear up his skin.
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Now in his 30s, McAuley has not allowed eczema to define him: he has journeyed past a point of self-acceptance to ultimately celebrate his body. In Itch, this is most poignant in a static trapeze sequence at the end of the performance, where his movement is joyously uninhibited.
McAuley has a warm stage presence and wins over the audience through the honesty with which he recounts his story. Less convincing are non-verbal passages of movement that with a bit more theatrical guile might have enriched the storytelling.
Continues at Smock Alley Theatre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Saturday, September 13th
