Breathing Water
at C (venue 34), Edinburgh

Brendan O'Neill

Breathing Water tells the story of Jonah, a young Irishman who has an all-consuming, irrational fear of water.

He has had this fear ever since an evil Christian Brother tried to drown him in a baptismal font when he was a child, for failing to hand his homework in on time. Jonah grows up a typical Irish teenager in a typical Irish town (getting drunk, taking drugs, 'skirt-chasing', screwing in taxis, hanging out with 'the lads'), but is haunted by water and a nightmarish vision that he might one day be submerged in it and have to swallow and breathe it through his mouth and nostrils.

Breathing Water is part of a small, unofficial, surrealist movement that is flourishing in County Cork, which gave rise to the seminal Disco Biscuits, among other works. Written and directed by Raymond Scannell, the play tries to capture one man's attempts to exorcise the demons of his childhood and to overcome his fears, by alternating between flashback, witty dialogue and poetic narrative. But this is where it fails. By jumping awkwardly between styles, Breathing Water fails to engage the audience in Jonah's struggle, instead bombarding us with ideas and language which are often just confusing or clumsy.

Some of the poetic narrative could be pop lyrics: 'Caressing to sleep by comforting kisses/Her lips tickling my skin to safety/In her arms I'm coma cutely/Senses synth in simple fusion.' Bad pop lyrics, that is. Despite the best attempts of the actors, particularly Cathal Murray as Jonah who must surely have a future in the Oirish film industry, Breathing Water falls flat, a victim of its own cleverness.