Wild Swimming

Gemma Allan and Síofra Ní Éilí in Wild Swimming. Image, Em Kelleher

***

A pre-show pose foreshadows the theme of Marek Horn’s Wild Swimming. The Elizabethan costumed Oscar, sat reposing with hand extended towards the fingertips of the standing, dominant Nell mirrors Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam. Substituting Oscar for Adam and Nell for God, Wild Swimming aims to recreate the universe with the feminine elevated to empowered divinity. Student polemics recycling introductory level 'Daddy bad, Mammy good' gender cliches. Guaranteed to delight or irritate, depending on your prejudice. For those uninterested in yet another well meaning, gender lecture masquerading as a play, Wild Swimming is passionately fun, modestly intriguing, hugely condescending, and leaves you frequently zoned out for endlessly shouting you into submission. The irony that Wild Swimming is equally guilty of repeating history’s same old mistakes eluding it. Yet you can almost forgive all due to its dazzling energy, and for the privilege of seeing a rising young star in the making.

Gemma Allan and Síofra Ní Éilí in Wild Swimming. Image, Em Kelleher

A tepid Orlando meets a diluted Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Wild Swimming talks about gender over, through and about time. Oscar, an eternal student and wannabe poet, and Nell, a rebellious Elizabeth Bennett lookalike, time travel through moments in history revisioned from a 21st century perspective. Conventions of the Elizabethan Era, the 19th century and early and late twentieth century revisited so Oscar can set up reductive, patriarchal platitudes so the outraged Nell can knock them all down again. For an hour, rinse and repeat, whilst name dropping historic references. Wild Swimming a lecture passed off as a debate passing itself off as a play. Relying on high energy, fun quips, brisk costume changes and the occasional smart insight so you won’t look too closely and see how meagre it all is.

Gemma Allan and Síofra Ní Éilí in Wild Swimming. Image, Em Kelleher

A darling of the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe, Wild Swimming is proud in being ashamed of its own privilege, and of regurgitating historically justifiable complaints about women being denied choice, freedom and agency. Modern man supposedly buckling under their Incel weight now women have slipped free of the manosphere to become wanderers, swimmers and poets. Leaving men supposedly feeling played out and set up. Which, in Wild Swimming, they are. To such an extent even Horn can’t but acknowledge it. Momentarily breaking the fourth wall, masculinity is reduced to a petulant refusal to relinquish the past. Yet it is Wild Swimming that clutches to the past. Repeating the same old practice. Reinforcing the same old binaries. Gender entrenched in the same old, two party system; one side demeaning the other to elevate itself. Promoting the terminally adolescent idea of replacing one form of tyranny with another. Redistributing weight in a binary system when the system itself is broken. Wait! Are we sacrificing what we’re supposed to be doing here to some heavy handed gender commentary? Funny that. You get a lot off that in theatre these days. Can get a bit dull after a spell.

Síofra Ní Éilí in Wild Swimming. Image, Em Kelleher

As theatre experiences go, director Alisha Finnerty makes Wild Swimming hugely engaging, mining its fun for all its worth when loud, lengthy tirades don’t have you zoning out. Like Oscar, Gemma Allan is reduced to shining only when allowed, given Nell has most of the best lines, conflicts and costumes. And Allan shines, transcending her role as a cliched gender function. Understanding Oscar is the straight comic partner, the superhero sidekick, to the scene stealing Nell. As, in this instance, is Allan to Siofra Ní Éili. The voraciously brilliant Ní Éili a ferocious young talent. Nell’s rollercoaster of revelations embodying an attitude and energy that launched a thousand revolutions. Realised by a lively Ní Éili whose meticulous detail, commanding presence, and playful petulance are a joy to watch. You might not be totally enthralled by Wild Swimming's polemics, but Ní Éili and Allan make sure it's theatrically enjoyable.

Wild Swimming by Marek Horn, presented by Bewley’s Café Theatre and WREN. Theatre, runs at Bewley’s Café Theatre until April 4.

For more information visit Bewley’s Café Theatre