Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Peep
Slip the Tongue Productions
Genre: Dark Comedy, Fringe Theatre, International
Venue: TheSpaceUK
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Sometimes things are not what you think they are. This is the very hard lesson May and Caitlin learn over the period of several months when they endure each others company in the hope each of them gets ultimately what they want. In the end both lose out.
Review
In general the audience is the spectator, the people who watch what is happening on stage. So it is surprising when the lights go up the on stage and we are faced with two women looking through binoculars. They don’t notice us, they argue. They argue about loo breaks, food and why they are there. The chat is mean. They goad each other, they are bitchy and clearly not friends. Men would probably call it banter, but it is nasty. Each tries to put the other one down and it becomes very quickly clear these two are not friends. So what are they doing there together in this messy flat somewhere in Dublin, spying on a man.
The story unfolds slowly over the next hour, but nothing is ever quite what it seems. As soon as you think you got the hang of what is going on, you realise you don’t. This play deals with the dark side of Millennial entitlement. A generation that has never learned that it can’t always have everything it wants, that everyone can’t always be a winner. May and Caitlin have lost and even be wronged, but they can’t accept it and move on. They blame a third party for their hurt, never once questioning if maybe their actions lead at least partly to the situations they are in. Their self-righteousness spirals into ever more grotesque and increasingly violent behaviour. They lose all touch with reality and their mental health suffers so much they turn into caricatures of themselves. Even when the whole thing ends in the worst outcome, they still think they are in the right. Neither realises they left the path of normal humanity a long time ago, precisely at that moment when they decided to stalk their ex.
The play has the typical slightly over the top dark humour that has become such a staple in Irish new writing. While it starts out as believable it evolves into a hysterical parody of the noir genre. There are the typical Irish obsessions of pregnancy and terminations. Even 50 years after May McGee had won her case in the supreme court to obtain over the counter contraceptives (the pill was already available on prescription) it has become folklore and Irish women like to treat the matter as if they had the same issues as their own great-grandmothers. What this play really shows, probably unintentionally is the lack of feminism among Millennials. The idea that a young woman has to spend the best years of her life following a man is brought to an extreme exaggeration. It does however make clear, how toxic this behaviour is. Both characters May (Rachel Lavin) and Caitlin (Kaya Payseno) are ultimately destroyed by their unhealthy obsession with a man, who never cared for either of them in the first place. Ironically, the play centers around the idea that women have to look out for each other. So Caitlin and May invite other ‘victims’ of the object of their observation to join them and their cause. Some take flight, realising how toxic the whole thing is. Others play their own silly game and unlike May and Caitlin they get found out sooner, which is a blessing in disguise.
Peep is very funny and has some incredible good lines in it. The audience often laughed out loud and they genuinely enjoyed themselves. Peep was first premiered at Bewley’s Cafe Theatre in Dublin in 2018 (published Nick Hern Books) and I found it did show its age. It is very much a play set in the mid-teens and of a style that was en vogue at its time. Six and a half years later, it feels at times outdated, especially in the context of female Irish writing. It is a snap shot of its time and we are not yet far enough removed to appreciate it as that.
Chloe Hayward has directed the two actors with great skill. Payseno as Caitlin and Lavin as May are very well cast and seem to play to their strengths. Their lines feel fresh and are delivered in a conversational style that fits this play perfectly. May grows more evil over the duration of the play and this was so incredible subtly portrayed that it becomes apparent only in hindsight. Caitlin breaks ultimately by the task she has set herself. While for much of the play she appears to have the upper hand, at end she is confronted with an unpalatable truth.
Peep is a wonderfully weird play with plenty to laugh at while at the same time asking some deeper questions about juvenile Millennials.
This production is the first international outing of the fairly new theatre collective Slip the Tongue Productions based in Berlin, Germany. When I spoke to Chloe Hayward why she chose this play by award-winning playwright Jodi Gray she said she had been looking for female lead two handers and this came up and sounded interesting. It is certainly interesting and we do need more plays putting the female experience on centre stage. Even in a distorted caricature as Gray has created for this play.
