"The Words Are There", staged at The Hope Theatre, is an unforgettable #physicaltheatre journey into the heart of silence & memory❤️ Helmed by writer-performer-alchemist Ronan Dempsey, Nth Degree Productions’ poignant #soloshow transports us to a humble seaside bedsit in Bettystown, Ireland🌊There we meet Mick, a man in mourning, surveying the remnants of his relationship with Trish, who is now gone yet somehow, still present…

The Good: How to describe Dempsey’s performance in one word? Painstaking. With the utmost care, every step, movement, and gesture is lyrically executed, and clearly well-rehearsed— so much so you could hardly tell that any onstage ‘accidents’ are pre-planned. The flawlessly fluid choreography creates evocative, impressionistic sequences: a table topples, Mick wipes up his spilled wine, his mop transforms into Trish, her head buried in the toilet from a rowdy night out…✨🧹🍷

The Great: Dempsey’s performance is magnetic— we haven’t seen someone nail the #poortheatre aesthetic like this in quite a while🎖️🌟 Using mundane household items, Mick progressively adds more to his inanimate scene partner to make her more ‘Trish’ and less ‘mop:’ He tapes her to a lamp so she can stand beside him. He adds a pair of shoes to her base. He ties her ‘hair’ back, brushes it, sprays it with hairspray to fully set. We’ve never developed a deeper relationship with a prop…

The GOAT: The ultimate payoff is when words are actually spoken. The lack of dialogue in the piece is a strong choice, underscored by #mime, sombre #music & occasional voiceovers. Mick & Trish’s ‘relationship’ is giving ‘Lars and the Real Girl,’ but better. When he finally utters those three words (#nospoilers), everything that has been building crumbles, making for a juicy catharsis…🥺

In all, "The Words Are There" is a fantastic feat of #fringetheatre. Using minimal dialogue, basic props, expert movement & music, Dempsey crafts an emotional #epic. It’s an elevation of form, and in our books, a 5/5⭐

#TheWordsAreThere #LondonTheatre