Once

Richard Carroll directs Once, a musical based on the small budget film, with music and lyrics by Glen Hansard, which tugged on heartstrings everywhere. Once, Carroll says, is “a kind of fairytale”. And it is. Boy meets girl on the street, each has a hole in their soul. They help each other fill it. The journey looks familiar, but the ending is not. It is mature and realistic, sobering in a way that challenges audiences to rethink the way stories speak to us. 

Guy (Toby Francis) and Girl (Stefanie Caccamo) meet on a street in Dublin where Guy is playing. He has just put down his guitar, giving up on music. Girl cannot let this happen, not to a man who sings so beautifully about love and loss. Her insistence is convincing – even spellbinding, helping the audience to connect to both Guy and Girl's journeys towards self-realisation. The character's connection is only possible because of something very special in Francis and Caccamo. Each performer's vocal and instrumental expertise hums through Eternity Playhouse's sold-out audience.

This show is by no means a two-parter, though. The ensemble is indispensable in the myriad of song and dance numbers, often starting with a simple piano played by Girl, with Conrad Hamill on the cello, or the energetic Joe Accaria’s rhythms on the cajón box drum or Alec Steedman’s virtuosic violin. (In one of the most riveting ‘scene transitions’ to be seen on a stage in recent times, Steedman races in circles on rollerblades and plays the violin – his ability demonstrating the polished nature of the entire show.) Drew Livingston, Abe Mitchell and Rupert Reid on guitars are also crucial comedic parts, and Joanna Weinberg as Baruska (Girl’s mother) on the accordion gives a joyous kick to the whole affair.

Put simply, the talents of musical director Victoria Falconer, director Richard Carroll and movement director Amy Campbell combine to create a thoroughly enjoyable and theatrically formidable musical. While Once doesn’t get into the political grit that contemporary theatre so often angles for, it is a show of liveliness and humanity par excellence.