The Approach

It’s probably best to see the latest production at Flight Path Theatre with this warning in mind: nothing is going to happen. In four scenes the three middle-aged women, meeting in pairs, will not move from their coffee shop seats except to promise to meet again, soon, very soon. Nothing much happens, and yet it works powerfully.

Author Mark O’Rowe is an Irish playwright of some note and his play features three excellent actors with complete Irish accents: Linda Nicholls-Gidley and Sarah June Starr as sisters Anna and Denise, and Lindsey Chapman as their friend Cora. Unleashed, Irish strains fill the theatre.

Over time, many months, they meet and talk about old times at school and in a shared flat, and more recent events involving romance, relationships and fall-outs. The play is saturated by a Chekhovian sense of domestic chat that masks an underlying breaking of hearts, a pervasive sense of loss.

It seems they are meeting at one local coffee shop, but it could be anywhere. There could be months, or even years, between meetings and the oft-given promise that ‘we’ll get together soon’ is exposed as reliably wrong. As time goes by and details begin to diverge, a subtle game of survival is revealed. 

Author O’Rowe makes us wonder if they are deluding themselves, or lying to each other, or what? We watch impatiently as the cast members try to sort themselves out. They go from chilly foes to best buddies in a flash.

Deborah Jones has directed this play down to the ground, and her actors have responded brilliantly. Nicholls-Gidley takes on Anna with world-weary excellence, while Starr is her unpredictable sister and Chapman the hesitant friend. These three grab their chances and run with them.

While no name is credited for the set design, lighting designer Alex Holver makes the large centre table and two chairs the core of the universe.

Frank Hatherley

Photographer: Abraham de Souza