Review: Hard To Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer at Malthouse Theatre

Review by Greg Gorton

Oona Doherty’s Hard to be Soft can be a thought-provoking live performance piece, though it does little of the actual provoking. Some talented performers and a polished production design do little to convince us that any exploration has been made of the stories of modern Belfast. Walking into this show prepared to ask questions of it will leave you fulfilled by what you find, but those who need to be dragged into a show may find themselves wanting.

The show is placed in and in front of a very large cage of vertical bars. Through some impressive lighting design and the carefully designed placement of bars and flats leaves it with the ability to perform minor illusionary feats - at times the performers feel miles away while at others it feels like you might be in the cage with them. While the set itself serves as a symbol of what is being explored, there is more that could have been done with the utilisation of such a marvel.

The score of this piece, by the incredible David Holmes, is filled with shiny discordance. Much like his long-time collaborator Steven Soderbergh, Holmes specialises in what I’d call “Hollywood Pulp”. Through the music there are audio clips of (presumably) real interviews and moments captured in Belfast media, carefully curated. It’s a score that is not raw and improvisational, but highly produced, attempting to imitate the authentic. It’s beautiful. I’m just not sure if it has a soul.

The production itself is made of four acts, of which the central two are the most compelling. The first, in which an octet of young dancers in colourful jackets perform a piece about belonging and individualism, is a serviceable example of good dancers using good choreography to offer a simple message. While no dancer or moment stands out, there could be nothing one would be able to criticise and, of all the pieces, this act felt like the piece that took advantage of all elements in a comprehensive way.

The second was the closest to compelling art there is within the show, and I suspect will be the part most people talk about when they leave the theatre. Two older (though far from elderly) men, engage in a physical act somewhere between a fight, an embrace, and a dance - what Doherty calls a “Meat Kaleidoscope”. The piece is a moving look at anglo-masculine physical intimacy that has nothing to do with sex, and at times this is compelling simply in its freshness. There is a conversation played in audio over the top that has thematic ties to what we see, although I’m personally unsure if the ties ended there, or if there is more others can find and enjoy in it.

These two quite different but reasonably enjoyed acts are bookended by solo performances by Doherty herself. While clearly a talented performer, and someone who would slay at lip sync battles, I found little to latch onto in these performances. Lazy “we are trapped in a social cage” moments and perhaps not enough of a performance to feel like the stage was filled are to blame, but this was a show where I feel that it did not end on the highest note it could have.

Hard to be Soft is a dance and physical theatre piece that has some beautiful pieces of workmanship presented as being more than what they are, and used as (what I feel to be) the worst tools for the sort of discussion I think it is meant to start. I cannot help but compare this piece to Kneecap, whose Oscar-nominated film represented a much more visceral and believable depiction of a city with a tense and complex culture.

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