Desire Lines actors (pic Desire Lines Gallery)

Ian Rowlands Desire Lines

Desire Lines is a play that pulls open the lives of individuals as they jaunt along on their journeys, analysing who they are in a country still coming of age.  We meet ‘Man’ on what is likely to be his final train journey around his ‘small country’ and as he travels his memory comes alive, taking us through the choices of his youth, middle years, his loves, losses and regrets.

‘Sorry’: such a small word that means so much, are we sorry we didn’t hear what you said? Or sorry because as a people that is what we have been conditioned to say? If so, what are we sorry for exactly?  There is something quite welsh about that, how an invisible border can affect so much and so little.

Younger Woman:

     I just want our child to grow up                   It’s time to go home, Adam.

    Not believing that he has to get our              Time to go home because I want our child to believe

   To be big;                                                   In himself,

  As you tried to be.                                        In his country,

  I don’t want our child to believe the shit         In his own language.

  you swallowed.                                           Not to feel the constant need to ask for permission to ‘be’

                                                                   In their tongue

                                                                   To be constantly sorry, sorry, sorry!

                                                                   It stops with me!

                                                                  With us...

                                                                  With him

Along with these, there were other flashes of brilliant dialogue that that struck a chord, in a country still growing and with an increasingly greater voice; many of the younger generation find the need to ‘find themselves’, to prove they are capable of greatness. Yet there is greatness on their doorstep and many are simply too focused on the negatives to see it. The younger ‘Man’ is a perfect example of this as he leaves searching for the ‘big city’ only to come home later on. 

Trains are the perfect place for memories, stuck with little to do on a fixed track, thoughts and memories will take over. Rowlands has capitalized on this idea, layering his character’s dialogue over one another as thoughts. Whilst this technique does make it noticeably difficult to pick the language apart and understand what is going on, it does represent a level of reality. Those moments of audience difficulty are disappointing, in the face of such poignant other moments of heartfelt emotion and comedic brilliance. We are all forced to overhear inane and annoying conversations eventually on public transport and Man’s reaction is hugely comic, how many of us have wanted to grab that idiot’s phone and chuck it out the nearest window? Or scream at the idiot on the other end? Do we really travel alone on a train? Or are you with those passengers around us? Passenger interaction is rare but the surrounding chatter and noise ensures you are never left alone.

The presence of some characters perplexed me, whilst capably performed by Joshua McCord the stereotypical intellectual youth and ignorant yob might not be out of place on a regular train but they have little place in the play. Except for the scene where he is seated next to ‘man’ for his exchange as the young gay man and the expert transformation into the son by ‘man’s’ invading memories, it felt like he was a bum on seat actor to represent a ‘typical’ train journey.

‘Old Woman’ stays silent for the majority of the play, following ‘man’ as he makes his way along. Occasionally her haunting, beautiful voice fills the space with old Welsh language tunes, bringing a feeling of peace that can only be found when a soul returns home. Between her and ‘younger woman’ they bring the voice of reason and truth that seems lacking in ‘man’s’ life and it is left to older woman’s ghost to bring man to his final stop, a journey he, inevitably, must take alone.  

Ian Rowlands attempt to objectify each place comes as a mixed bag. He almost universalizes the towns as ‘Dullage’, ‘Chavton’, ‘Our city’, ‘Ugly’ or ‘Bluerinse Bay’ and really, they could be any towns on any train journey. Although each name is a mischievous dig or a sneaky nod to places with certain reputations: ‘Our City’ is Cardiff, a vibrant up and coming cosmopolitan that makes us proud versus ‘Ugly’ and ‘Chavton’ as Llanelli and Rhyll respectively with reputations of dirty industrialisation and poverty.

Desire Lines is a play that brings out mixed opinions, heartfelt and emotional it had me welling up one minute and laughing freely the next yet those moments of laxness left me frustrated and wanting an explanation. It is at once a play of Wales and Welsh and a play of human life and its choices. It is up to the audience which piece of the play they take away with them.

Sherman Cymru
At Chapter Arts until 23^rd April on tour til 3rd May