My Best Friend Drowned in a Swimming Pool

Eva O’Connor’s latest dramatic delight refuses to reduce young people to the shallow Hollywood labels of Goth, Geek or Jock. Instead, her characters appear real, conveying brilliantly the bittersweet nature of teenage life.

A talented dramatist and actor, O’Connor rose to attention following her Fringe debut Clinical Lies, which she wrote and starred in. Her latest creation is an in depth examination of the grief that grips a close-knit group of friends after one of their number dies, and sees her once again assuming a prominent role in a small cast of five.

O’Connor has a gift for writing witty and realistic dialogue, and while the subject matter of My Best Friend Drowned... can be heavy going, the witty interactions between the characters are extremely funny. In particular, Liam—a gay Catholic and proud of it—provides much needed comic interjections that lighten the mood.   

All of the cast do an excellent job of bringing their characters to life, but O’Connor is by far the most captivating to watch. Her character, Emily, is a dark and brooding girl whose acid tongue and razor sharp wit belies the emotional turmoil she is going through.

Teenage stereotypes are a convenient way for those who have forgotten what it is like to be young to categorise people they do not understand. It is clear that O’Connor understands exactly what it is like to be young and is adept at communicating it in both word and action.