Coppers, contraceptives and craic: Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope

Written by playwright Stefanie Preissner, the show hits a little too close to home with its eerily accurate portrayal of twenty something Irish women living it up in ‘the big smoke’. Over a tension filled six episodes, Aisling (Seana Kerslake) and Danielle’s (Nika McGuigan) fragile friendship is tested time and time again as the girls attempt to find the perfect balance between the craic and work–a toxic partnership if there ever was.

Coined the Irish Girls, Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope addresses many issues that affect young women. While actress and writer of Girls Lena Dunham was heralded by critics for her realistic depiction of women, the privileged, brash and spoilt New Yorker is not someone all Irish girls can relate to.

Preissner’s sharp witted, quintessential colloquialisms are excellent and add to the humour of the show but she also manages to skillfully capture the nature and mannerisms that make the Irish woman so different from any other. The emphasis on drink culture, awkward hookups and the necessity of casting all worries away on the dancefloor of Copper Face Jacks are all things she gets spot on.

One scene that stands out in particular, is a trip Aisling makes to the pharmacy to obtain emergency contraception after a one night stand–the stranger she slept with just so happens to be her bosses’ younger brother (a role that Amy Huberman smashes, to no surprise). As if the embarrassment of getting the morning after pill isn’t enough, poor Aisling has to face an actual lecture on the serious implications of her lifestyle. “I’m not that kind of girl, like, I don’t sleep around,” is her fitting response to being asked to consider the pill.

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: http://www.thecollegeview.com/2016/10/26/cope/