In the Project Arts Centre, If We Had Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Loved You details the escapades of two very different young men, Casey and Mikey. Set in Ennis, the play dramatises the events of a single evening, set in a single setting – the roof of Casey’s house. The set is simple, yet effective, showing a simple, slanted, tiled roof with a lone chimney pot.
The duo form an unlikely and dysfunctional couple, simultaneously lovers and partners in crime. On the night of Halloween, the two rob a petrol station and following that, they steal from Casey’s stepfather. During a failed bid to escape, they become trapped on the roof with three Garda cars below. Most of what follows consists of psychological drama. Casey is a troubled eighteen-year old trapped in an abusive home. Mikey also lives in a world largely formed and influenced by violence. At 24, he is facing court charges for grievous bodily harm, even before this recent robbery. The two may be in love, but they both have their own conflicting agendas on the fateful night of Halloween.
Much of the drama is psychological. About two thirds of the play passes in reference to the unseen – the past, the unseen gardaí, the friends who never pick up their phones. When the action is based upon the rooftop the actors’ physicality is beautiful. Their movements are fluid, flirtatious and at times explosive, always constrained by the imaginary danger of the physical space that they are acting in. The actors and director made an admirable job of a difficult script. The script’s restriction of a 90-minute play to a single place and time is confounded by the complications realised by working with only two actors and no interval. The set-up places huge pressure on the director’s inventiveness and ability to keep the audience’s attention.
For the most part, director Thomas Martin rose to the challenge, although in places, the characters’ reminiscing became staid. Martin made great use of the ambiguities of the piece, allowing the psychological drama to shine through. If We Had Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Loved You’s innovative use of a rooftop setting makes a refreshing change from the Irish pub plays, while the overall piece retained many of their characteristics. The performance retained a harsh realism throughout. The final heart-wrenching moments of the performance evoked enthusiastic applause from the audience.
