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A brave and intensely personal exploration of grief and loss in the long shadow of the Troubles.Summary
Rating
Excellent
In this day and age where Northern Ireland is at peace and the shadow of the gunmen has – mostly – withdrawn, it’s perhaps easy to forget the extent of the scars and trauma left by The Troubles. In this one man show, Ruairi Conaghan takes us on a deeply personal journey to tell the story of how his family trauma comes back and comes close to decimating his life many years later.
At just eight years old, his uncle, Judge Rory Conaghan, was shot and killed by the IRA. Years later, having left Northern Ireland to pursue a successful acting career, both on stage and screen, he is offered the role of the Brighton Bomber, Patrick Magee. This link back to Northern Ireland leads to memories and buried trauma resurfacing.
In an effort to understand Magee better so that he can get into character, Conaghan meets him, leading to an inner turmoil, because how can he sit and talk with, never mind play, a self-described soldier in the same organisation that murdered his uncle? How does he reconcile this professional challenge with his own personal pain? Conaghan skilfully multi-roles to show us this debate play out in his head as he starts to uncover the trauma he carries.
Shortly after comes an offer to play the Player King alongside Benedict Cumberbatch’s Hamlet. Here Conaghan hilariously demonstrates the infectious joy when an actor has been offered a part. But the Player King’s speech, describing the young warrior Pyrrhus attacking the elderly King of Troy, takes on a deeply personal resonance, so whilst it does bring personal success, in preparing for the role his uncovered trauma grows, threatening to derail his life both physically and mentally. Conaghan begins to connect his lines with his own loss, creating a striking and moving moment as he merges the details of his uncle’s murder with Shakespeare’s words.
Lies Where It Falls is an intensely personal show and unique story. Yet its themes of grief and loss, and of being lost, will resonate universally. He hides well any fears or trepidation he may have at baring so much of himself to audiences, even when he recounts how bad things got and the hospitalisation that came along just as he reached the biggest stage he’s been offered, scenes that hit hard.
There are also some lovely touching moments. Conaghan might not be a household name but his value and contribution to the theatre come to the fore when a director notes that he’s done so much for the ensemble over the year and suggest it’s time for the ensemble to support him – you can still see how touched he is by this still years later.
Conaghan has the audience sitting in rapt attention, a born storyteller who can make us first laugh then hit hard by the feeling of grief. It is more than just a performance; it’s a brave and unflinching act of catharsis through storytelling, Conaghan transforms his personal grief into something universal, offering a raw examination of trauma, resilience, and the enduring power of connection.
Written by: Ruairi Conaghan
Dramaturgy by: Patrick O’Kane
Design by: Juliette Demoulin
Lighting Design by: Christopher Corner
Sound design by: Niall Doran
Movement direction by: Dylan Quinn
Produced by: Andy Jordan Productions in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre
Lies Where It Falls plays at Finborough Theatre until 21 December. Further information and tickets can be found here.
