Irish themed plays are certainly dominating the Sydney theatre scene at the moment. With Ulster American currently playing at the Ensemble Theatre, the Belvoir St Theatre is also playing host to Grace Chapple’s play on Northern Ireland, Never Closer. The play, which is one of very few to move from the Belvoir’s more experimental “Downstairs Theatre” into the main auditorium is Chapple’s first full length work and opened to outstanding reviews in its debut season. Returning to the Belvoir with the same cast, the show completely sold out on the night of review, with an audience eager to see the evolution of this work. 

The play begins with five teenage friends, Deidre (Emma Diaz), Niamh (Mabel Li), Jimmy (Raj Labade), Mary (Adriadne Sgouros) and Conor (Adam Sollis), who are celebrating as Niamh moves to London to study medicine. This will be the last time that they are in a room all together but as they reminisce over more than a few drinks, it seems as though they’ll be back together soon enough and that the reunion is more of an inevitability than anything else. 

The main action of the play is set ten years later on Christmas Eve when the group of five meet all together for the first time since their teenage gathering. Niamh is now engaged to Englishman Harry (Philip Lynch), which stirs up quite a bit of tension in the group. Their meeting seems to be a chance encounter but increasingly, it seems as though fate may be playing a much larger role than initially meets the eye. 

As the play develops, more unresolved issues rise to the surface as Harry’s British heritage causes Conor and Deidre in particular quite a bit of discomfort. This devolves into a chaotic scenario, in which almost every set of characters attempts to resolve some form of interpersonal issue that has developed over the years. 

This is a play that is heavily dependent on the acting skill of its ensemble and in particular, on the chemistry of every acting combination. This is something that the company manages incredibly well, with the performers feeding off one another to achieve true connection on the stage. Director Hannah Goodwin ensures that there is intention in every interaction, which develops the play and the relationships in it. Diaz and Labade are particularly stunning in their shared scenes, with the audience able to feel every one of their emotions as if it were their own. 

Where the play suffers is in its pacing. At a 105 minute run time, the play felt as though it either needed an interval or for some material to be cut in order for the focus of the audience to be maintained. While there was intention in most aspects of the play, it felt as though some material could have been dispensed with in order to ensure a more streamlined and faster-paced narrative (somewhere around the 75-80 minute mark would have probably been ideal). 

Additionally, the play felt incredibly context-specific, focussing on The Troubles in Northern Ireland. While a context-specific play can certainly be moving (and indeed, in this case, it was), it perhaps lacked a certain poignancy of message that ascended beyond the context of this particular work. While it said something about time, memory and friendship (in all its manifestations), this was certainly something that could have been developed to add an extra level of meaning to the production. 

Overall, this was a strong and emotional work that showed off the incredible range of the performers on the stage. While there were some issues with pacing and length in the script, this is a play with a wondrous synergy between its five performers, and that in itself is something to behold.

Rating: ★★★★

Never Closer plays at the Belvoir St Theatre until 16^th June. For more information, click here. 

All photo credits: Brett Boardman