Last night I went to see ‘Victor and Gord Cubed’ in the Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar.
The official blurb told me this:
“You know those friends you grew up with? Went to school with? Laughed, cried, partied and pulled with? D’you ever wonder sometimes, if they’d ever just F*ck Off? Real Life friends Vickey and Aine, aka Victor and Gord, have only one thing in common, each other. Sneaky cans. Sneaky fags. Free love. It was Ballinclea Heights. It was Killiney. Victor and Gord CUBED is a funny and moving theatrical celebration of friends and family featuring two additional real life relationships, including a brother and sister. Victor and Gord CUBED. Real Lives. Told by the people who live them.”
The reality was this:
‘Victor and Gord‘ was amazing. I had no real idea what to expect, what sort of format. I wasn’t expecting to laugh and cry along with the performers who opened their hearts to the audience in the purest way possible though. I really wasn’t expecting it to be so simple and moving.
Written and directed by Una McKevitt, sister of Áine (aka Gord), Áine opens proceedings by telling the audience that the piece was inspired by a photo found by Una of herself and Vicky in their school uniforms slouched against each other outside one of their homes. She decided to write about how their relationship had transformed from that extreme closeness to where they are today-not seeing that much of each other, having a sometimes fraught and angst-ridden relationship.
As you would expect from a Fringe piece, there was no set, no costumes. The performers spoke directly to the audience throughout facing us directly. It was all about their voices, their timing in telling stories, sometimes began by one partner in the relationship and finished by the other. We saw three different relationships come to life on stage.
Victor and Gord, aka Victoria and Áine, childhood friends, now adults, remembering and reminiscing over the good times and some bad.
Ali and Michael, sister and brother from a small town in Co. Kilkenny where they grew up in their parents pub in a town that had two shops a church and the pub.
Jason and Fergus, two perfect strangers whose lives strangely mirrored each others in some ways but were wildly different in others. In fact they only met for the first time at the launch of the Fringe Festival five weeks ago.
The whole ‘Victor and Gord’ experience was an emotional rollercoaster, not just for me but for many of the audience. You could feel the atmosphere, the sadness and the shock as clearly as you could hear the laughter at the funny anecdotes, my favourite being Fergus telling us he remembered how his mother had come to school to collect them one day with their pet duck in a pram
The strongest talking points were family, home, death and childhood. In fact childhood and home were two of the main settings for most of what was talked about, coming of age, growing up and seeing their childhoods from an adult point of view, the fun times, the bad times.
There were so, so many good things about ‘Victor and Gord‘ that I went straight out for a coffee after the show and wrote them al down. But if I tell them all, you’ll have nothing left to see for yourself
It is by no means a bunch of people talking at you about their lves, it is told in short snippets (and even some song), sometimes each talking about themselves, sometimes about one of the others, sometimes telling a tough story for someone else.
If you see nothing else at the Fringe, go see ‘Victor and Gord Cubed‘ today at 1pm or tonight at 6.30pm.
You can buy tickets here.
A rollercoaster of emotions that is so well worth the trip I loved it from start to finish and would go again and again!
I wish them all the very best in th eFringe Festival competition New York here they come as it would be hard to see anything else top Vic & Gord!
I think I’d definitely go again myself Scoby, alas the run is finished for Dublin Fringe but hopefully they will put the show on elsewhere again