Made Up

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Kieran Hurley’s Beats meets The Hiccup Project’s May-We-Go-Round? in Made Up, a part-rave, part-morning after play by Aoife Leonard. The sweat-soaked bars of Dublin are the setting for four young women—played here by Heather O’Sullivan, Aibhilín Ryan, Eimear Sparks and Tilly Taylor—to drink, dance and date. Essentially, to enjoy their youth.

It’s a finely polished first visit to Edinburgh, as the four women contemplate a turning point in their lives: at once celebrating their freedom but also weighing up their plans for the future. It’s familiar and fertile ground for new theatre groups with whom new friendships have been established, yet this quartet are also powered by convincing, infectious on-stage chemistry.

They blend poetry with dance, physical theatre and straight acting to recreate the euphoria of clubbing in Dublin. The lights dim and they ignite the stage with multicoloured torches and strobes. In fact, this mood could be set with even greater intensity to allow an audience to fully lose itself in the thrills of a night out. We’re not quite there with them, and it can sometimes feel slightly undercooked.

Leonard also touches on the abhorrent dangers of clubbing for young women. Although many nights out can be a carefree experience with friends, equally apparent is the threat of hostile, non-consensual contact. While the play isn’t directly about this, its theme constantly lurks at the margins of the text. Largely, however, we are treated to a city which simply comes to life after dark.