Seón Simpson’s on a Tangent
New Theatre, Dublin 2
★★★★☆
“Being a funny c**t is a trauma response,” Seón Simpson sagely suggests in this crowd-pleasing hybrid show. We expected no less. Few theatre-makers are navigating the intersection of form, comic provocation and mental health with her audacity.
An award-winning writer and director from Northern Ireland who with Gina Donnelly makes up the boundary-pushing creative duo SkelpieLimmer, Simpson has steadily built a reputation with Two Fingers Up, the winner of a Lustrum award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and contributions to projects helmed by David Ireland and Conleth Hill.
Simpson’s touching, hilarious, deconstructed suicide monologue mines the rich seam of her teenage poetry blog – from DeviantArt, of course – for stand-up gold. Sample teen-poem line: “Chestnuts, his eyes.”
As a former unrepentantly horny and devout Church of Ireland adolescent, she has endless sexual misadventures and darkroom fumbles to explore. Bible camp, much like band camp in the American Pie movies, is compared to a swingers’ meet. A liaison with the minister’s son results in explicit action in the back of the family’s seven-seater. A favoured Christian nightclub in Coleraine forbids alcohol, but you can easily acquire cocaine in the lavatories.
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This material would have been plenty for another performer, but Seón Simpson has punches to land. Fans of the film Sorry, Baby, Eva Victor’s exquisite trauma comedy, will thrill to Simpson’s unguarded account of depression, SSRIs and suicidal ideation, all played out as impersonations of other comedians, including Billy Connolly and Victoria Wood (at the piano, because she’s a “multidisciplinary artist”), and Ted-talk-friendly introspection.
Can she make suicide funny? And why does she want to? Simpson’s exhilarating, unvarnished tale of her teen self attempting to kill herself – you’ll have to see it for yourself – provides all the answers we need.
Runs at the New Theatre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Saturday, September 13th
You can contact Samaritans on freephone 116 123 or by email at jo@samaritans.ie
