T5 and Sea Wall are modern plays with traditional, old-fashioned theatrics and storytelling. Stripped down to the bare essentials, they become just a story with an actor and the audience, driven by both the language and plot line from Belfast-born playwright Simon Stephens. The double bill runs at Nun’s Island Theatre from Saturday, July 12 to July 26.
T5 stars Sarah Morris, a young woman trying to make her way in the world. After witnessing a very traumatic event in a playground, she begins a downward spiral while questioning her being, her choices and the person she has become. The short yet dramatic piece brings the theme of womanhood to the forefront with a deeper dive into the overwhelming lives many are forced to lead, juggling careers and motherly duties, all the while maintaining a sense of self.
“It is a very dramatic piece that looks at modern life and questions the whole idea that a woman can do everything. The pressure that a woman can be under in trying to have a career, and also trying to be a mammy and a wife, and all that goes with that,” says director Andrew Flynn. “It is a really beautifully written, very lyrical piece, and with the fantastic actress Sarah Morris. It is like a cross between a piece of Beckett and a kind of Enda Walsh play.”
Originally made famous by Irish actor Andrew Scott, Sea Wall is about a man who is living his well-to-do life before an event occurs that completely turns it upside down. This beautiful, and yet devastatingly tragic, piece of theatre will be performed by Ian Lloyd-Anderson for Galway audiences.
“Anyone who sits and listens and gets to know this character will relate to that story: how life can change in a heartbeat, and how thin a line it is between being somewhere in your life, and that being completely turned upside down.
“That is what both of the plays do in a very modern sense. They bring the audience in, and I think they will cause people to go away thinking about life. Thinking about how fragile it is, and how busy it is, and how important it is to actually take time for yourself,” contemplates Flynn.
“They are both modern stories. They are both stories that could happen to anybody. Simon Stevens, he is a prolific writer and really, really, really well-known internationally. This is a chance to go and see something different,” he recommends.
Tickets €27 to €30 from www.giaf.ie
