Who's Looking at you? ~ by Colm G Doran

Having thoroughly enjoyed several productions directed by Colm and one dance piece which he wrote the background script for, I was keen to go and see his latest piece of writing.

“Who’s Looking at You?” was performed in the Crush Bar at The MAC, Belfast.

The same trademark headphones from previous shows “Three Stories”, “Date Show” and “Date Show: After Dark” are being used, but this time, just one colour of headphone, meaning that the audience would all be listening to the same script throughout the production, rather than several stories going on at once.

We are seated in the bar, headphones on, awaiting the entrance from the actor(s).  A bar maid strolls by, pushing a bar trolley in front of her. I wonder if she is part of the performance. (She isn’t!) Then a woman appears, glammed up in her little black dress and red lipstick. Through my headphones, I can hear her thoughts. Here is our actress.

She sits at a bar table. A bottle of wine is resting in a wine cooler. Two empty glasses await the appearance of her and her date. We hear a beeping noise. She checks her phone. In her head she’s reading out his text. About the date, he can’t make it. His child is sick and vomiting, he will have to take a rain check.

Disappointed, she looks around her uncomfortably. She had already poured herself a glass of wine and now she is drinking alone.

Punters attending the MAC – possibly to see the ‘Oliver!’ in the main auditorium, or to dander around the art gallery, can’t help but look over at the woman drinking alone in the Crush bar. Albeit, they are probably noticing the string of blue headphone-wearing people watching her, but their curiosity adds to the authenticity. She is self-conscious, she is drinking alone. Who is looking at her?

I begin to realise that this performance will take the form of listening to our actor’s inner-most thoughts. Having not been out of the house for weeks, she decides to drink on. One glass, two glasses, three glasses, four. Within the space of her drinking, we listen to her reminiscing about the past, remembering childhood memories, recalling the moment she met her husband.

My attention starts to move around the bar – noticing the people coming and going, noticing the other people who are watching this piece also, wondering if the wine inside the glass is real or watered down Ribena. I begin to think how hard it must be to act this piece – when she can’t get up and stride around – when all she has to work with is facial movements.

And then something happens. Then the memories suddenly go to the death of the husband – only 8 weeks prior. And furthermore, we hear of what the husband was really like – abusive; one punch after the other. We are thrown into a memory where she is lying on the carpet trying to count the patterns on the carpet just to distract herself from the thump-thump-thump.

Tears spring to my eyes. That is the strength of this writing. That amidst the distraction of punters passing to and fro, despite the fact the actress can only work with facial movements, the writing is so powerful that it catapults us into another place which can stir so much emotion.

And somehow, somehow there happens to be comedy in the midst of this. The friend on the phone whose complaining about ‘the b*tch in the Jeep behind her, up her backside’ and the text from the vomit guy promising to stand downwind so she won’t experience the bad smell. And there are heart-warming moments too – the smile on her face when she realises the new guy is outside waiting for her; the possibility of new beginnings and moving on and potential happiness.

Bravo to Colm Doran on another fabulous production. I look forward to seeing more writing from this author! 

Who’s Looking At You? ~ Written by Colm G Doran

Performed on Sat 19 January 2019 – 3.30pm in the Crush Bar, The MAC

Presented by Prime Cut Productions as part of the ‘Revealed’ series