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The Dean Kriel, a solo performer living and working in Moscow, prides himself on utilising his own personal experiences to explore tensions between the individual and the community in an attempt to engage the audience in conversation. His entry in the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival strives to give a voice to Russia on an incredibly controversial issue. I’m Going Through Something, his solo performance of an introspective conversation between the head and heart, discusses the power of lying as he battles between himself, his nation and his dreams.

First performed in Moscow in July 2014, the play follows a conversation between Dean and the performer. Set in an intimate room in the Cobalt Cafe, the performance attempts to interact with the small audience, giving each member a script and a pencil to follow. Any fears regarding a break-down between performer and audience however are quickly dispelled, as ‘improvised’ audience probing is carefully instructed in the script itself, leaving little effort or response from the audience in return. The individual scripts themselves ultimately serve to remove any sense of being in the moment, distracting from the stage action and from the emotion of the performance. Coupled with a rather poetically incoherent text, simply following the play is a struggle. Kriel’s performance, nevertheless, is charismatic and intermittently engaging, giving the play some plausibility. Inevitably though, even Kriel’s best efforts are unable to support a play that fails to challenge the audience.

Many of those in attendance no doubt expected a rather more political performance from the description – ‘preparing for a private conversation with Putin’. Unfortunately, I’m Going Through Something sheds little light on gay life in modern Russia. Instead, it follows Dean’s dissection of his preoccupations with truth, deception and the varieties of sexual acts. His rather stream-of-consciousness conversation offers little by way of his own conflict between himself and his nation. The lack of a clear statement on behalf of LGBT experiences in Russia is disappointing and falls short of our probably too high expectations. However given the fantastic platform the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival offers to international theatre, I can not help feeling that it is a wasted opportunity.