Culture

Written by: Dorothy Parker
Directed by: Diana Mockford
Starring: Alex Wilson and Miriam Noonan
(2.5/5)

When going to see a work by a new director I always have a slight sense of trepidation, never quite knowing how the situation will pan out. Here We Are was set on a train and the journey began for the audience as soon as we were presented with our train tickets/programmes. Next we were presented with the set, a small but elaborate reconstruction of a train carriage in which we met Wilson and Noonan in elegant attire. As I took my seat I was very eager to see how this journey would progress. 
   It got off to a bit of a rough start: for the characters, actors, and audience. It is always exciting for the audience when the actors manage to build tension before a show starts; to be able to create and hold an uneasy silence and sense of awkwardness as the audience expectantly awaits the first words. In this case you could see the actors made an attempt to summon this but it didn’t quite hit the mark.
   Wilson and Noonan respectfully played ‘He’ and ‘She’, a newly married couple of less than three hours journeying to New York for their honeymoon. The characters themselves are fairly one-dimensional as one might gather from their non-descript names, are meant to represent any and all traditional newlywed couples. There were certainly laughs to be had as we watched the quarrelling couple fight and make up. But at times both actors needed to slow down a bit, feed off each other and build to each climax, before swiftly coming to a resolution. Occasionally the dialogue rushed ahead of the audience forcing us momentarily off the train only to be let on at the next stop. This was disappointing. 
   There were certainly some very cute moments and in this respect Noonan was a delight to watch. But it seemed that the actors hadn’t had the time to become comfortable enough with the text or with each other to convincingly pull off a married couple. The actors appeared to be on different tracks heading in different directions: they acted but they didn’t react.
   This production was a very commendable effort from a first-time director. Here We Are was cute and quaint but unfortunately not quite compelling.