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Float review: A captivating show exploring the quiet terror of being in one’s 20s

Dublin Fringe Festival 2023: Performance interrogates non-consensual sex and the culture it gives rise to

For 60 minutes, the four women stunningly portray the process of mental ill-health. Image: Kirby Thompson

Kate Demolder
Thu Sep 14 2023 - 13:19

Float

Bewleys Cafe Theatre
★★★★★

Float, the hour-long Belfast-centric drama featuring student housemates Erin, Mia, Caitlyn and Grace, all in their early-20s, runs at pace towards a harrowing reality.

The foursome, who came together in college, move the way students do – Kings Cups, broken bathroom mirrors, celebrity cardboard cut-outs (Danny DeVito and Robert Pattinson greet guests as they find their seats) – until something happens to make them stop. With this, they deal with the grown-up realities of womanhood, uncomfortably and imperfectly, at a time when proper agency has yet been afforded to them.

For 60 minutes, the four women – who also bring to life a myriad of other circumstantial characters – stunningly portray the process of mental ill-health, coercive control and healing in real-time, while finding the edges of trauma in different ways.

[ Dublin Fringe Festival: Full coverage ]

At several times, the audience is directly spoken to, aiming unflinchingly and with a clear, controlled voice, to interrogate non-consensual sex, the culture it gives rise to and the life-destroying aftermath of those impacted.

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Float directly interacts with the quiet terror of being in one’s 20s – the pressurised “golden age,” where many sink and few swim. The line “30 isn’t that far away!” is repeated ad nauseam, as our four protagonists decide between career and family in panicked, self-conscious tones.

With its captivating pacing and punchy, nuanced writing, the show written by Kirby Thompson and Orla Graham (who plays the role of Caitlyn) asks two questions: How do we treat victims of abuse?; And, when those decisions affect us, how do we react?

It feels cliche to say this play should be added to school curricula (it should) but such is the importance of tackling topics like this in approachable, reachable ways. If cast and crew isn’t afraid to tackle the issues, then neither should you be.

Continues at Bewleys Cafe Theatre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Sunday, September 17th.

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