When the press release for Lipstick Service arrived it sounded like something a little bit different. “Prison is the setting for LIPSTICK SERVICE, a cutting edge production from La-Di-Da, which premieres in this year’s Absolut Fringe. The play centres on the experiences of three female prisoners, Natasha, Chrisso and Faith, and their ability to cope with life behind bars. In an engaging and gripping presentation, these women reveal the raw truth and harsh reality of living within a prison community.”
Then again, press releases have a habit of using adjectives like ‘engaging’ and ‘gripping’ and ‘raw’ with wild abandon so we weren’t particularly worried about picking two seats in the front row until the lights came up on the opening scene of a girl being forced to go down on a prison officer. It’s intensely difficult to look away from something on stage the way you can on TV. There’s no fast forward. It’s got to be even harder to play the scene and Kiara Noonan in the role of Faith and Gareth Sherry’s Officer Murphy didn’t shy from it.
Luckily, it’s not all watch-with-one-eye-open action. Infused with witty dialogue and the odd well-timed one-liner, the hour-long Lipstick Service manages to explore the lives of its three central characters with depth and pace. Dealing with addiction, intimidation and abuse and how all three can twist and break the prisoners’ attempts to be loyal to each other it tells the story of Faith - in for smuggling and protesting her innocence; Chrisso (Donna Douglas) - an addict arrested for soliciting and making no excuses about her guilt and Tash (Stephanie Kelly) who murdered her stepfather but doesn’t talk about why.
Stephanie Kelly and Donna Douglas
Only rarely is the audience’s engagement with the action broken. John Paul, Tash’s brother, visits her in prison and greets her with a strong (we’re guessing Wexford, but certainly not North Dublin) accent that doesn’t fit well on his character. So too, counsellor Kevin has an authentic Northside sound and a distracting tattoo on his hand that doesn’t tally with his college boy role. We reckoned they might’ve done well swapping roles, but it’s only a minor quibble and this play is very much centred on its female characters.
With a minimalist set of a table and chairs that triples as prison breakfast room, visiting area and counsellor’s office the production uses lighting and backdrop to fantastic effect, showing silhouettes of the characters in wordless off-stage scenes that bring the play together. At times genuinely harrowing, consistently engaging and terrificly written and acted with a special mention for Gareth Sherry who engages fearlessly with a difficult role and Donna Douglas’s Chrisso who was the real deal as far as we were concerned until she stepped out at curtain call wearing a smile that completely transformed her face and revealed Chrisso as a perfectly-played character, Lipstick Service is no lip-service to theatre or its subject matter. Never trite, it’s brought to the stage with passion and talent by the up-and-coming La-Di-Da Theatre Company and with just three more Fringe performances to go (tonight, Thursday and Friday at 8.15 p.m. in the Axis Theatre) you would be well advised to part with €9 (€7 concession) and make your way to see this show.
La-Di-Da will meet people outside Dublin Bus offices on O’Connell St at 7.00 pm each evening to bring them by bus to the performance in axis: Ballymun. (It’s also worth noting that under 16′s won’t be admitted).
