The ex... vile
Theatre We Are Not Even, online on Facebook, from November 13 to 25
OXFORD-based Irish actress Rachel Mae Brady launched her theatre company Savage Heart Productions in 2018 at the OffBeat Festival with a compelling one-woman play,
Wolf Tamer, based on her recollections of her adventurous uncle. Now Savage Heart has commissioned writer Corrina O’Beirne to turn her short story, We Are Not Even, about an embittered thirtysomething paralegal, Polly, into a filmed series released over a fortnight on Facebook.
The films are short, and the numbers of films shown daily vary from one to four. The drama is directed by Joy Forsythe, and filmed by Brady on her mobile phone, allowing for many outside locations, usually of Polly striding down a pavement.
Polly has not got over her ex. She found out she was dumped when she discovered her boyfriend Dominic’s farewell message scrawled over a bill, which she shows us. An ex-employee, Polly was dismissed for improper behaviour relating to her computer’s search engine. She’s vitriolic about Dominic’s new Portuguese girlfriend, who is nastily disparaged by Polly for being short. As the series progresses, Polly is determined to get a form of revenge; she knows where the couple live.
It’s a well-conceived series, and Brady is an alluring schemer. In the drama’s most dramatic scene, Polly endures a Zoom chat with her friend Joanna (Roseanne Lynch), who offers home truths about Polly and Dominic’s relationship. We watch each character on their screens wind each other up until there’s a frustrated row that colours our view of Polly negatively. Selfabsorbed, we see Polly in everyday situations, doing home gym, washing in the bath, her face white with soap like a clown, and lying pained in bed as the baby next door wails loudly through the wall, bitterly regretting her childlessness. You would not want to be her enemy, as Dominic is. Brady is mesmeric throughout, fearless in displaying life’s beatings on her beautiful face. Like the best serials, the format leaves you wanting to tune into the next episode.
Savage Heart is another example of an Oxford theatre company embracing digital technologies to successfully reach audiences outside of theatres during this pandemic.