“I thought a lot about love. About how it can happen out of the blue, about how it can change everything when it does. How it can give direction when you feel lost.”, writes Irish playwright, John O’Donovan, about his first full-length play, ‘IF WE GOT SOME MORE COCAINE I COULD SHOW YOU HOW I LOVE YOU’.  It is set in Ennis, County Clare, where he spent much of his childhood.

This beautifully written, feisty play is rich with humour and pathos. It was written in 2015 as the same sex marriage referendum was happening in Ireland, exploring the personal struggles, duality and insecurity of two men in love. The play defies stereotypes and takes us on a delightful rollercoaster.                            

Mikey (Eddie Orton) and Casey (Elijah Williams) have just robbed a small petrol station taking very little,  so they break into one of their family homes, finding cash and a large stash of cocaine in a toilet cistern. They take refuge by climbing onto a dangerously sloped roof, brought to life by Jeremy Allen’s set design.  With the police on their trail, they are trapped up there, engaging in engrossing, drug-fuelled conversation while they wait for the right time to get down and go to a local party.    

Director Warwick Doddrell has given the two-hander a hard edge and lightning pace so suited to O’Donovan’s punchy, enigmatic writing.  His choreography and staging is brilliant in such a small space.

Elijah Williams gives a magnificent performance as the younger, gentler, bi-sexual Casey.  His vulnerability is endearing. Eddie Orton is fabulous as Mikey. He’s tough, a fighter, but his charming and witty manner defies this and he carries an underlying sadness and restlessness.

Costumes by Stephanie Howe are appropriate, the clown robber’s mask becomes a valuable and ironic prop.  Kelsey Lee’s lighting and Melanie Herbert’s sound design are powerful, especially as the police cars approach from below.

The Green Door Theatre Co. have done a wonderful job putting this play together and the whole team must be congratulated.

‘IF WE GOT SOME MORE COCAINE I COULD SHOW YOU HOW I LOVED YOU’ is playing at the Kings X Theatre, Potts Point, until Saturday, February 23rd, 2019.