A slick absurdist piece, PALP’s
The premise of One Above carries an urgent message about the competitive nature of modern life.
If some of that last sentence went over your head, then be aware that some of the performance will too. One Above knows its audience: switched-on millennials watching the piece will be familiar the most of the modern jargon and trends referenced: web content, mindfulness, neoliberalism. Thanks to the young writers, the vocabulary is spot-on – but a lot of it (and consequently, a lot of the humour of the piece) may well alienate audience members less familiar with the zeitgeist.
That said, the performances are all polished and understated. Fintan Dineen (who also wrote the piece) is an imposing and sickeningly self-important Person A, and Daniel LeCann provides a little reality as the working-class Person C. The standout performance of the piece, however, comes from Eve Perry as Person B. Full of self-doubt, she is likeable and irritatingly fickle all at once, and deservedly gets the most laughs from the audience.
The premise of One Above carries an urgent message about the competitive nature of modern life, but it’s not quite there yet as a piece, both in form and in what point it’s really trying to make. There are some promising moments of direction, such as the characters swapping clothes in an attempt to become more like each other, and the piece is at its best when gunning for laughs – but it ultimately stretches a clever concept out for a little too long, and doesn’t manage to hold its audience for the full length of the performance.
