Twinkletoes
Lion Theatre, Adelaide
Starring Carol Scarlan
Reviewed by Stephen Spence
Jennifer Johnstone's Twinkletoes is about "everything and nothing".
Carol Scarlan's strong performance of this piece for the Third International Women's Playwright Conference tells the story of Karen, the wife of an Irish Republican prisoner serving three life sentences.
The Irish Republican Army volunteer is not the only prisoner in this drama the north of Ireland's tragedy. Karen, just returned from her daughter's wedding, describes the lives of a community caught in a prison of loneliness — "so many alone" — uncertainty and isolation.
Rather than stay at the wedding dance — where too much enjoyment could lead to complications from admirer Danny — Karen finds some solace in a vodka bottle in her flat.
A good dancer, taught by her father, Karen tiptoes through the minefield of local politics, repressed emotions and community expectations of her role as a prisoner's partner.
Johnstone's language is direct, poetic, real and full of sawn-off dreams. The impression is of a whole society living with restrictions that remove humanity from, and place impossible expectations on, individuals. "Twinkletoes" is Karen's nickname; it describes exactly the role such a woman must play to fulfil these expectations: talking about "everything" (the daily trivia), and "nothing", (those impossible, hopes and dreams).
Carol Scarlan is from Belfast's Charabane Theatre, a company formed by five unemployed women actors 11 years ago. Her character portrayal of Twinkletoes is a worthy Australian debut.
Charabane Theatre has worked closely with local communities crafting plays that tell the stories of the everyday life of people trying to find their dignity amongst the mayhem. Productions have focused on the mill girls' strike of 1911, the demise of the Northern Ireland Labour Party, the Divis Flats and, in Twinkletoes, the slow death of daily dreams. Charabane has toured widely in Ireland, Britain, America and the former Soviet Union and is due to present its latest production later this year in London's Durill Hall and at the Belfast Festival.