View from the Green Room: Carberry’s writing holds us in her grasp
Hannah Carberry's play Grasp at the GOMA art gallery garden.
Everyone in Hannah Carberry’s coming-of-age teen drama is grasping for something. Life, love, meaning, security.
Above all a future.
Career, home, relationship and unchanging sense of self.
Amidst all the swagger and the bluster that careers over the deafening music, the search for a life beyond school constantly intrudes.
A bustling opening introduces a quintet of post-leaving cert teens. The gap between the sexes is immediately obvious as the three girls – Nadine (Anna-Mae Carroll), Jade (Nikki Paskalj) and Ava (Tilly-Mae) – launch into explorations of the significance of the conversations and actions of the lads – Ruairi (David Marchant) and Oisín (Jack Kavanagh).
Daily rituals intrude. Like what to eat, where to sleep, what to do and where’s the loo when the five decamp to West Cork for a weekend where the closeness of each other’s company lends itself to explorations of the real person that awaits behind the mask of pretence.
Up-close-and-personal is a little too close for teen comfort as Nadine discovers with the sometimes gaslighting affections of wannabe songwriter Ruairi whose life’s work seems to revolve around no more than a couple of barely regarded tunes.
As the action moves forward, and the couple find themselves more alone, grievances and accusations are dumped on the floor like Monday’s washing.
Distractions wash around the script to provide relief as tensions emerge.
Whatifery is everywhere and only sometimes resolved. And frequently left unresolved. Like life and love, really.
What if Nadine gets her place on a creative writing course in Manchester? Ruairi worries what if Nadine can’t cope without him as the entire audience wants her to see the back of a young man who is manipulative with a hint of violence about him.
His constant whining about the on-again-off-again dying Daddy speaks volumes about the shallowness of his character.
Blusterer and party-guy Oisín’s obvious affections for Jade are more straightforward and the long-remembered asides of I-think-he-really-likes-you from Jade’s friends Nadine and Ava struck a chord with older audience members.
Ultimately, the play revolves around Nadine’s desire to find her way in life.
Playwright Hannah Carberry invests her character with an honesty and an openness that makes her character appealing.
Nadine’s fortunes are compelling and force us to take her side as Ruairi plays havoc with her affections and fills her with contradictions as he spreads his love to others.
“I have to fight for the right to be loved,” she laments as she wonders, “was it all worth it?”
A final note from Ruairi asking to meet him on the Prom at 3pm suggests unresolved issues.
“Grasp 2—the sequel” perhaps?
Direction from Sinead Hourigan is pointed and imaginative as she floors quite a complex drama and draws fine acting performances from an ensemble that work well together.
Anna-Mae Carroll’s Nadine is a complex mix of innocence, vulnerability yet shrewd observer of behaviour; David Marchant’s Ruairi delivers a likeable presence with dark and disturbing undertones; Nikki Paskal’s sensitive Ava and Jack Kavanagh’s powder-keg of energy as the blustering Oisin turn out to be a fine match, while Tilly-Mae’s Ava is excellent as the forever-friend that orbits the on-off nature of teen romance.
Well done Hannah Carberry – Waterford’s newest playwright - on an excellent debut with “Grasp”.
You just can’t beat good writing.
