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Spandex Blues, written by Diane Crotty, tells the story of E, a supervillain played by Crotty. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the theatre company, describe themselves as being “dedicated to bringing together text, live music, puppetry, animation and movement” and we get a taste of audience participation when asked to sing the Mission Impossible theme tune. E is from the Northside. This is the origin of many of the production’s jokes. Crotty delivers an enthusiastic, hearty performance, though sometimes struggles to keep up with the fast paced dialogue. Unfortunately there were a number of tongue slips where the wrong syllable was said and corrected – “cackles” instead of “cockles”. Often times words are difficult to make out and are lost to the speedy pace.
We are brought through the story of how E attained her supervillain credentials. At times it’s hard to tell where the story is going or gauge what the relevance of a lengthy description about her superhero brother’s car. After E exhibits supervillainous behaviour, her superhero siblings take her aside and present her with a mask. “For us to be us, you have to be you” they say. E repeats this unnecessarily again later to illustrate its significance. Confident in her new identity, E undertakes a big act of villainy and the show reveals its one funny joke in the form of a robotic Éamonn de Valera. When E comes face to face with the impact of her villainy the show takes a turn for the bizarre.
With time Spandex Blues begins to tackle mental illness. E reveals that she has been placed in a white cell in an institution (not the padded one this time, we are told), held down and sedated. Everything up to this point had been a joke. Now, no one laughs, uncertain as to whether this is supposed to be humorous too. Regrettably, the sudden somber tone does not work. The comic book style description of the situation fits uncomfortably with the discussion of inpatient treatment for mental illness. We were not shown any of the symptoms of psychosis which E is being treated for. The early mention of a doctor explaining her quietness to E is contrary to her loud nature throughout the play. The change is jarring and does not suit the character we were previously shown. The psychosis revelation, without any apparent symptoms, leaves us confused. Was the entire show a psychotic episode?
Feeling left out by family and struggling to come to terms with the harms of her supervillainous actions, she retreats to her lair and sinks deeper into depression. All this is expressed via the same superhero, comic book language and with props of cut off hands. The audience, or “hostages” as we are said to be, are here to witness her suicide and send her message to the outside world. She takes off her mask and shirks the role of villain. E announces that things are a metaphor – in case the audience did not understand that. Of course we did.
Word of warning: if you hope mental illness will be dealt with in an accurate way, this may not be for you. The same may be said if you don’t find a short woman playing a villain innately funny.
Spandex Blues runs until Saturday 30th January in the The Boys’ School, Smock Alley. Tickets are €12 for students.
