If
We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You by John O’Donovan.
Directed
by Joel Horwood. Produced by Jarrad West and Nikki Fitzgerald. Jarrad West & Nikki Fitzgerald. Set design Isaac Reilly. Sound design Neville
Pye. Lighting design Lachlan Houen. Costume design Winsome Ogilvie. May 14-24.
2025 Bookings: (02)62108748
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
 |
| Joshua James as Casey and Robert Kjellgren as Mikey in If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show How I Love Yoi |
John O’Donovan’s debut play If We Got Some
More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You echoes with the authenticity
of personal experience. This could be because of director Joel Horwood’s
detailed attention to the moments of panic, humour, conflict and love that he
has carefully and imaginatively elicited from O’Donovan‘s text. It may be because
of the thoroughly credible performance of the two young actors Joshua James as
Casey and Robert Kjellgren as Mikey, who give such riveting and convincing
performances as the two burglars, facing capture on the one hand, personal
truths and admission of their true love on the other. It may also be because playwright
O’Donovan has diligently observed Aristotle’s Unities. The unity of time is a
few hours late at night on Halloween. The unity of place is the roof of Casey’s
house. The unity of action is the developing relationship between the two young
men as they reveal their predicament and the confession of their feelings for
one another.
Horwood’s
casting of Joshua James as the young 18 year old whose house they have burgled
after an earlier bungled theft of a petrol station and Robert Kjellgren as the
older, more experienced delinquent is inspired. James and Kjellgren give thoroughly
convincing performances sensitively and at times explosively orchestrated by
Horwood. James and Kjellgren are two of the finest young actors I have seen on
the Canberra stage and I urge you to see their performances before they are
certain to pursue a bright career in the theatre. James plays a London youth
feeling alienated in the small Irish village and battling the abuse of his
mother’s drug- dealing lover. Casey is more sensitive than the larrikin Mikey,
whose rebellious and defiant nature disguises a vulnerability and need for
love. It is Mikey who eventually helps Casey to admit to Mikey and to himself
his homosexuality. Horwood directs these tender moments with loving
appreciation of the nature of true love.
O’Donovan’s
play exhibits an honesty that makes the circumstance that Casey and Mikey find
themselves in entirely believable. At times we laugh at their naivety and
innocence. At other times we are moved to empathise with their plight and their
compulsion to be true to their feelings. Everyman Theatre has once again
produced a piece of theatre that invites us to witness the human condition and
consider our own place in the world.
I
close with a confession. On opening night I had difficulty understanding the
text, partly because of the accents and partly because of my inability to
distinguish the words. Fortunately I resolved to return and had no such trouble
apart from some difficulty at times with Kjellgren’s Irish brogue. Independent
theatre struggles at time with short rehearsal periods and my return affirmed the
fact that the actors’ clarity of text and familiarity of playing had evolved
into a first rate performance of O’Donovan’s hilarious and tender account of
youthful gay love. This is a production well worth a visit.
Photos
by Ben Appleton – Photox
