‘Heaven’: A Gorgeous Rumination On Past And Present Desire
Image: Photo credit: Alex Vaughan
How often do you think about the person you could’ve been? When long-time couple Mal and Mairead head to a wedding in their hometown of Limerick, the past is drudged up once again in Irish playwright Eugene O’Brien’s tender tale of lost desire and identity, Heaven.
Deceptively simple on its face, it’s an intimate show about two people who don’t even know they’re dissatisfied with the trajectory of their lives, but nonetheless find meaning in them on one fateful night.
Heaven operates as a set of dual monologues from each side of Mal and Mairead’s marriage. Through the separate but equal perspectives of these two characters, we get a full view of their personal struggles and relationship. They’re both in a reflective mood; Mairead about a past lover in her younger years, and Mal his repressed homosexuality that he’s never truly surfaced in their marriage without passion.
Between Mairead’s tense relationship with their daughter, Mal’s repressed sexual fantasies about Jesus (as in, the Jesus) and this mostly utilitarian marriage of two decades becomes a mirror to reflect for its participants.
The minimal direction by Kate Gaul communicates as much about the characters as anything, with both actors present on stage at any given time but never directly interfacing. With the only set dressing being a bench and metallic streamers, the emphasis is solely on these actors and characters.
Yet despite the intimacy of the set and the small space of Qtopia’s Loading Dock Theatre, there’s a great distance between these characters. You get the sense that their admiration for each other as husband and wife comes only when apart.
Lucy Miller and Noel Hodda are stellar in Heaven
It helps that Lucy Miller and Noel Hodda are absolutely incredible as Mairead and Mal, delivering entirely different energies that help paint the full portrait of their relationship with fantastic Irish accents. Mairead is vivacious in Miller’s hands, an overwhelmingly electric presence that’s easy to connect with as she reconnects and considers throwing everything away for the “one who got away.” But is it too late?
On the other hand, Hodda portrays the much meeker Mal to stellar effect. His character feels more overtly tragic than Mairead’s, having repressed his sexuality after having fantasies about Jesus as a young lad. Hodda sells the tragedy of Mal to stunning effect as this wedding night is quite unlike any other he’s had, rife with yearning for the man he could’ve been.
It’s that powerful sense of yearning that lies at the heart of Heaven, both for a different past and present. What can these people make for themselves in a world that’s vastly different than the one they grew up in? In this superb play at Qtopia, we’re encouraged to find meaning in what has been and, if we like, change what is to come.
Heaven is playing at the Loading Dock Theatre in Qtopia until Saturday May 31st.
You May Also Like
