Walsh sisters Eileen (foreground) and Catherine (background) team up for first time in The Same (photo by Nir Arieli)
THE SAME
Irish Arts Center
726 Eleventh Ave. between Fifty-First & Fifty-Second Sts.
Wednesday – Sunday through March 6, $25-$65
irishartscenter.org
Prior to The Same, the closest award-winning Irish actresses and sisters Catherine and Eileen Walsh had come to working together was in Eugene O’Brien’s Eden; Catherine starred as Breda Farrell in the 2001 play, while Eileen, who is eight years younger, took over the role in the 2008 film. They cannot get much closer than they are in The Same, which opened yesterday at the Irish Arts Center’s lovely new 21,700-square-foot home in Hell’s Kitchen.
The two-character play was written specifically for the siblings by Tony winner Enda Walsh (Ballyturk, The Walworth Farce,) who is not related to them. The show, from the Cork-based site-specific specialist Corcadorca company, premiered in 2017 at the decommissioned Old Cork Prison, then later was staged at Galway Airport; both are fitting locations for the fifty-minute work, an intense psychological drama that explores complex issues of time and place, confinement and freedom, focusing on conceptions of past and present particularly as it relates to loss.
The New York City premiere, which runs through March 6, is set in an intimate space filled with randomly arranged cushioned chairs on a plush rug centered by a rectangular carpet. It’s general admission seating, so you can choose a spot right up front or in one of the rows behind. Around the room are two television monitors, a bingo machine, a bookcase with a boombox, and tables with a fishbowl, plants, magazines, games, and puzzles. Overhead is a light grid of 105 squares, some empty, hanging extremely low, as if closing in on the protagonists. (The immersive scenic design is by Owen Boss, with lighting by Michael Hurley and sound and music by Peter Power.)
All audience members must wear masks, but two women’s faces are not covered as you enter the room; even if you are unfamiliar with Catherine and Eileen Walsh, you instantly realize them as the performers. In character already, they fidget uncomfortably in their seats, looking unhappy and distressed while avoiding eye contact with anyone.
Lisa (Eileen Walsh) tries to figure out just where she is in Enda Walsh play (photo by Nir Arieli)
We soon learn that we are in some kind of medical facility or halfway house where Lisa (Eileen Walsh) is recovering from trauma that led to mental instability. In her opening monologue, she speaks of feeling alarm and apprehension as she arrived in a new city. “The dread was real — was felt real,” she says. “Right at the back of my throat and it slid further and grabbed my heart — and further still it slid and sat in my stomach like a bomb.”
The two women talk about personal choice, destiny, rain, and marzipan, mention such other characters as Claire, Gavin, Howard, and Avril, and serve food at a funeral. As time goes on, they begin to share memories, which include a childhood birthday party and the death of a mother. They engage in lyrical conversations that are as existential as they are poetic.
Lisa: Don’t you think we look the same?
Other Woman: No.
Lisa: Not the exact same — just the…
Other Woman: What?
Lisa: There’s similarities, I said.
Other Woman: No there isn’t.
Lisa: In the eyes — and the head too — and maybe the chin and the nose.
Other Woman: Talking fast.
Lisa: Facially we’re very similar me and you. But not the exact same — but similar only, don’t you see that at all?
Other Woman: No not at all.
Lisa: Or maybe just…
Other Woman: What, I said.
Lisa: Something else — something invisible — don’t you see that?
Other Woman: Don’t I see something invisible?
Lisa: “See” meaning sense, I mean. Don’t you sense a similarity between us?
Other Woman: She said.
Lisa: I felt it immediately when I was in that dead woman’s kitchen — didn’t you feel it too — it started just when I said my mother just died?
Other Woman: Maybe you need to eat something, I said, wanting it to stop.
Walsh sisters Catherine (foreground) and Eileen (background) sizzle in The Same at the new Irish Arts Center (photo by Nir Arieli)
In between scenes, bingo balls fly out of the machine, the radio blasts music, or the television turns on Judge Judy and game shows, which feature winners and losers. The sound of water emanates from various speakers as Lisa tries to keep her psyche from drowning. It might all feel random but it’s not necessarily, evoking the kinds of thoughts and memories that can cloud anyone’s mind. “Where is the start and end of me?” Lisa wonders. It’s a question all of us have asked ourselves.
Original director Pat Kiernan, who helmed Enda Walsh’s 1996 debut, Disco Pigs, starring Eileen Walsh, in addition to his later Misterman and The Ginger Ale Boy, keeps the audience guessing as the characters examine themselves. Nothing comes easy in the intricate plot, which takes so many subtle twists and turns you won’t be able to catch them all. The sisters sizzle together, Eileen (The Merchant of Venice, Phaedra’s Love, both also directed by Kiernan) practically collapsing into her body, Catherine (Sharon’s Grave, Enda Walsh’s The New Electric Ballroom) much more physically open. It all fits into a tight, emotional fifty minutes that feels like a bomb about to go off in your stomach, a play that benefits from being performed by a pair of extraordinary actresses who know each other so well.