‘Older’ makes one last visit to his childhood friend’s house in west Belfast. The bulldozers are in and the estate is about to be flattened. The ‘upside down’ house – a two-up-two-down with bedrooms unusually below the living room and kitchen – will soon be no more. Memories come flooding back and Older is soon confronted with the ghost of his boyfriend from those school days.
The Upside Down House is the place they first kissed. The place they first figured out how to have sex … dial-up internet connection speeds would certainly have taken the edge off looking for much-needed advice online! It’s the attic in which they watched old movies and weaved the lines of dialogue into their banter.
Twenty-four years later, as the bricks and mortar prepare to crumble, some of the memories also begin to deconstruct, perhaps exorcised by this intentional re-examination. Yet Older (Shaun Blaney portraying a cautiousness as the impermanence of life confronts his character) is building up the emotional energy to confront the night he disowned his true love (a jolly flibbertigibbet Colm McCready) in an almost Biblical moment of repudiation.
Tracey Lindsay’s set is sparse, dominated by a few moveable stud walls and a tall A-frame ladder. Yet it feels like it satisfyingly fills with full width and height of The MAC’s upstairs theatre space. Polythene sheeting hangs across much of the abandoned home, acting as a screen for hand drawn and pointillism projections that are deliberately not sharp until the polythene is pulled down. The boyfriend’s costume matches the graphics and the look of being hand-drawn, with dark pen lines around the edges. Designer Rosie McClelland could do a roaring trade selling jackets as merch after the show.
Isaac Gibson’s immersive soundscape includes the sound of construction and old movies. Gavin Peden’s videography merges with Mary Tumelty’s elegant lighting (which even manages to neatly cheat a projector beam with a lamp on the floor) to transform a plastic sheet into a duvet.
Ciaran Haggerty’s emotionally-laden script is stuffed with nods to classic cinema, and the two school groups in last night’s audience lapped up the moments of levity. There’s even room for a superhero ascent through a couple of ceilings to reach the attic for a spot of Film Club. Over the 65 minutes, the regularity of the jokes relaxes and the serious business of Older facing up to his youthful shame. There’s a pattern of keeping his boyfriend at a distance, and years later, it still troubles his trapped soul.
Patrick J O’Reilly creates a magical world, consistent with itself, expressing the story in visual form and movement as much as in words. Tinderbox Theatre Company’s The Upside Down House continues at The MAC until Sunday 2 November as part of Belfast International Arts Festival.
Photo credit: Carrie Davenport
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