TIC

Focus Theatre, Dublin Until Sep 18 8pm €10-€16 087-2744125 focustheatre.ie

“It’s not a chill,” Lorna Quinn’s nameless protagonist says of her strange affliction. “It doesn’t have a name.” Her neurological disorder, expressed in twitches, barks and convulsions, would later become known as Tourette’s syndrome, but that’s not quite the subject of Elizabeth Moynihan’s new play, set in 1890s Ireland. Instead, the condition provides a handy metaphor for the real theme of the Focus Theatre production: the imprisoning sexual politics of the Victorian age.

In Joe Devlin’s elegant staging, the play occupies an intriguing space between fable and history, with Quinn’s symptoms scrupulously researched but expressed with the heightened style of a dance.

Confined to a tower and beset by competing explanations, Quinn’s character is marginalised by her husband, exorcised by a villainous priest and finally diagnosed by a forward-thinking doctor, only to become regarded as a lucrative case study.

Moynihan’s writing abounds with probing literary allusions and some deliciously arch humour, although her central character is realised at the expense of the others, while a clever layering of ideas supersedes the shape of a plot.

“It is the interpreter of me,” Quinn says of her affliction. “I barely exist.” She may as well be speaking of Victorian gender politics, but Moynihan’s absorbing play knows you must first understand both conditions in order to find a treatment.

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