Playwrights are naturally drawn to the brain and heart. Rarely do plays more fully convey what it’s like to live in someone else’s body. Writer-performer Eve Steele achieves just that with all seven characters in this affecting, amusing drama with political bite.
It helps that the setting is an exercise class, but beyond aching joints and new injuries, Steele examines the physical effects of a range of longstanding mental health conditions and traumas that each participant brings into this drab community hall. Effortfully perky instructor Alice (Elizabeth Twells) leads the group and before any proper dialogue, characterisations begin through movement: Eva Scott’s uneasy Colette heads straight for the far wall, Dominic Coffey’s ticcing Shaq hunches inside his hoodie and Aaron McCusker’s forthright Rab swaggers into the space. Rebecca (Raffie Julien) wearily assists her dispirited nana, Marie (Eithne Browne), and Alice unleashes an upbeat playlist of high energy tunes.
