Pennyroyal: the secrets that emerge over a cup of tea

By E. L. Hardy

The publicity for Pennyroyal doesn't do the play any justice, although it is interesting that it describes the play as darkly comic. To me most comedy is dark anyway because it dares us to confront the truth about ourselves. We are slightly twisted creatures; the funniest things tend to be the strangest, the cruelest, the darkest, the blackest. We cry at weddings and laugh at funerals. There's schadenfreude, and all that. The best comedy, dark or otherwise, is the truest. Pennyroyal, with its protagonist James: a troubled and selfish man, and its subject matter: broken hearts and miscarriage, isn't deliberately trying to be comic. It is an honest account of one man's behaviour. We feel like we know James, and we laugh at the moments that are familiar. We laugh because the story is full of truth and, in the case of Pennyroyal, the truth is just a tad disturbing.

Writer and actor, Eamonn Hearns has created a one man play that holds your attention from the opening gambit to the final full stop. The writing patters naturalistically over, and directly through the heart of the subject matter. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl move in together. Boy loses girl. It's a story we've heard before, but with a psychological accuracy to it that is comparable to that of a contemporary novel. The same can be said of Hearns' performance. You wouldn't know this was a performance at all until later in the play when the style becomes more theatrical with a heightened degree of physicalisation and use of flashback and mime.

Hearns has meticulously moulded (and then embodied) a recognisable, loveable, hateable character. Approaching thirty and recently single, James attempts to drown everything he despises about himself on nights out with the lads in Dublin. But the story isn't really about relationships or dating; it's about a father/son relationship and the inherent and unavoidable way that we are eternally connected to our parents, whether we like it or not. During the performance, you drink tea with James. You sit with him as he talks directly to you - staring into your eyes as if searching for the answers within them.

Initially, Pennyroyal feels a little like an audiobook - slightly overwritten for a monologue, replete with imagery. But this strangely compelling, static introduction grants Hearns the opportunity to become increasingly stylised as he continues to share James' story with us, eventually confessing all.

PS in short: Pennyroyal may well invoke laugher, but the plot is a difficult tea to swallow.

★★★★

@postscriptjour

Pennyroyal

Asa nisi masa

Assembly Hall, Mound Place

31st July - 25th August (not 11th)

15.05

#reviews