Silent by Fishamble

I wasn't going to write a blog post tonight.  I'm tired. I have a show to see every night this week.  I thought I'd go to bed early, maybe read a bit, muck around on Twitter and get some rest.

But tonight I went to see a show at the Waterfront as part of Belfast Festival at Queen's.  It blew me away.  Absolutely amazing.  My first thought was how can I put into words what I just witnessed?  It's not possible.  I feel like I've been through a washing machine of emotion.

Silent is the touching and challenging story of homeless McGoldrig, who once had splendid things. But he has lost it all – including his mind. He now dives into the wonderful wounds of this past through the romantic world of Rudolph Valentino.

It's a hard sell - it's a play about depression, heartbreak, marriage breakup, suicide, death, loss, guilt, homelessness and vulnerability.  But despite this, Pat Kinevane takes us on a splendid rollercoaster of a journey, full of laughter, friendship and dancing.  Speaking directly to individual people in the audience made his performance all the more real. Each person in the audience was made to feel like his only friend, his hope, his confidante.  At his lowest ebb, he asked in a tiny voice "Patricia, are you there?" and Patricia from the audience answered in a shaking voice, "Yes".  Never before have I been so glad that the audience was there.  It felt like we were the only thing keeping him on the stage, like he really needed us to stop him falling off the edge of the world.

When the end came, the audience rose to their feet in a wave of support for this broken man.  The spell Kinevane had woven was extinguished and I realised I was sobbing.  For this broken man who had disgusted me, made me laugh, made me cry and made me pity him.  Most of all though, I wanted to be that small shaking voice who reached out from the audience and answered "Yes, I'm here".

You need to see this show. If you see one show during Festival, it's this one.

I'll babysit for you. Go.

Book here.  Now. It's only on until Wednesday.

Karen

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