Last weekend Galway theatre company Blue Teapot brought Sanctuary to this year’s Fringe Festival. The play is not new – it premiered in Galway in 2012. The company is Ireland’s only professional theatre company that employs ID actors. In Sanctuary we see 7 actors. The play was devised by the actors and written by playwright Christian O’Reilly. The plot is simple to follow: On a group trip to the cinema, two characters manage to find themselves in a hotel room aided and abetted by a care worker. They want time alone.
Finding the right person to call a partner is hard for anyone. If you add in the complication of living with an Intelectual Disability, this option reduces further and any physical relationship between two people with ID before marriage is seen as illegal under Irish law. It is also a subject we instantly feel uncomfortable with. Let them run in a race but don’t let them snog.
Sanctuary addresses this issue in a heart-warming yet unflinching way. O’Reilly’s writing helps but the lead actors – Kieran Coppinger and Charlene Kelly - deliver groundbreaking performances as Larry and Sophie. They are adults attracted to each other. They know the law will come down hard on them. Larry knows his elderly parents would never understand while Sophie has the stifling rules of her care home to escape from but they have the determination of lovers. Sophie hauntingly tells Larry of past male care workers taking advantage of her, while Larry faces up to his own Down’s syndrome. There are false starts. There is tea drinking and finally there is a kiss.
That kiss blew me away. It was a first kiss between lovers. It was also a first kiss between Ireland and a group of citizens long ignored. It was stunning.
Kisses have consequences and we do see Larry and Sophie grapple with what it means to have a physical relationship. They hilariously but poignantly fail to open a condom. They debate the ‘what if...’ question of: can they conceive after the first time? They resolve to marry.
The central relationship causes ripples among the wider group. Sophie has a spurned male friend who has to deal with rejection. Another couple from the group, Eimear and Michael, begin a journey when they see what love means. There are happy endings but no simple endings.
But that kiss. I was privileged to see it and humbled by it. Without doubt it was and is the most important stage kiss in Irish theatrical history.
Sanctuary made my weekend. If it comes back to Dublin or does another mini-tour of Ireland make sure you see it. It will change your life.
