Fifty-something husband and wife Mal (Noel Hodda) and Mairead (Lucy Miller) are in the Irish Midlands for a wedding.
Their own marriage is in the doldrums.
Perhaps a weekend away from the humdrum of everyday life, celebrating another couple’s matrimony, will bolster their own marriage?
It certainly sets the scene for the pair to examine their own union. But, in an interesting theatrical approach, Mal and Mairead never actually speak to each other in Heaven.
Instead, the couple communicate directly to the audience, via a series of interlocking monologues.
Both characters recount life choices, mistakes, what-ifs and what-abouts in a ‘thinking out loud’ fashion.
The beauty of the monologue as a theatrical device is that it’s more intimate and direct than conventional dialogue, allowing for a deeper dive into a character’s motivations, as well as the plot and overall themes.
In this case, we hear how they met, of extramarital affairs, of identity and desire and ‘sliding doors’ moments in an up-front, explicit way.
Both characters worry they have missed out in life; that the sensible decisions they’ve made as adults have robbed them of experiences they should have had and people they could have been.
Mal, it turns out, has latent homosexual desires; Mairead has latent desires for a man other than her husband.
A downside of the monologue is it can feel contrived, with characters sharing information that would more naturally be conveyed through interaction. That’s not the case here, with Hodda and Miller’s acting strengths surmounting this drawback of the theatrical style.
With their talents and years of experience on stage and screen, they bring strong, convincing performances to the stage, generating a stirring mix of pathos and mirth; relatability and disdain.
They’re also very funny. Eugene O’Brien’s script, while dealing with serious issues around identity and life choices, is laced with humour, which Hodda and Miller mine perfectly for laughs.
But there are some issues here, not of Hodda or Miller’s making.
The intensity of the two interconnected monologues (for 100 minutes straight, no interval), with little in the way of light and shade, feels relentless. Worse, at several points, it starts to feel monotonous.
More variations in pace would have been welcome.
Another, less serious, issue at the opening night performance was that the lighting didn’t always hit the mark. The spotlight sometimes slightly preceded or lagged behind the actors.
Despite these issues, Heaven, directed here by Kate Gaul, is a largely successful staging of Eugene O’Brien’s duologue, which won the 2023 Irish Times Award for Best New Play.
Read: Theatre review: Looking for Alibrandi, Adelaide Festival Centre
On a related note, Heaven was this reviewer’s first experience of the Loading Dock Theatre, which opened last year. This intimate 60-seater at Qtopia Sydney, the city’s LGBTQIA+ museum and cultural centre, is a fantastic addition to the city’s independent theatre scene.
Despite its small size, the venue is nicely raked and quite spacious, never feeling uncomfortable or cramped in the way that micro-venues often can. For theatre lovers who haven’t yet seen a play at the Loading Dock, Heaven represents a good opportunity to experience the venue.
Heaven by Eugene O’Brien
Loading Dock Theatre, Qtopia Sydney, Darlinghurst NSW
Produced by Bitchen Wolf
Director: Kate Gaul
Assistant Director: Romney Hamilton
Lighting Design: Topaz Marlay-Cole
Stage Manager: Caity Cowan
Dialect Coach: Carmen Lysiak
Cast: Lucy Miller, Noel Hodda
Tickets: $35 to $45
Heaven will be performed until 31 May 2025.
