Lough/Rain

This double bill of plays authored by two different writers uses the same characters – Caoimhe and Michael, whose love for each other is tested by a terrible accident.

Declan Feenan’s Lough is an intriguing and deeply poetic study of dreams drowned in domesticity, focusing on the morning before the accident.

A sense of foreboding, mistrust and guilt vaguely suggested by the script is heightened by director Dan Sherer’s atmospheric world which he has woven around the characters using predominantly the resources of silence and pre-recorded sound.

Actors Kate Donmall and Jot Davies also deliver consistent, engaging and often very powerful performances throughout both pieces – thus giving a very strong throughline to the double bill as a whole.

Clara Brennan's piece entitled Rain takes place in a residential care home after the accident. Deriving a lot of drama from the given conceit itself, Brennan then turns her attention to the ways in which for the sake of sanity the characters struggle to hold on to the measurable values, but also to each other - even if against the odds. Sombre but accomplished.