More arts festival reviews, A15The quieter, gentler side of the festival is on display in a wonderful piece of documentary theatre that demonstrates how the everyday experiences of ordinary people can be transformed into extraordinarily powerful drama.
The play owes it origins to a real event observed by Irish actor and writer Amy Conroy in a supermarket.
In the canned-goods aisle, she chanced upon two elderly women kissing, and this fleeting moment of intimacy sparked a long collaboration in which the two women were cajoled into revealing their life stories.
The women, both named Alice, are down-to-earth and self-effacing. The more conservative partner describes herself as the type of woman who likes a crease down the middle of her slacks and considers chocolate biscuits a luxury.
The narrative charts their life-long struggle with deeply conditioned feelings of shame and shows the gradual development of confidence in asserting their identity and challenging the world to accept them for who they are.
