A Tear for a Glass of Water

In ‘A Tear for a Glass of Water’ the actress Tara Casey performs a fragmented monologue written by Orla Barry, to a static camera. A life belt is stranded redundant on the wall. Is it a rehearsal, a lecture? The performance is cold at times severe. Interest in religion has revived proclaims the performer authoritatively. So has toast and marmalade. Witty aphorisms are dropped into a swimming sea of comment, odd facts and recollections. Sisters are an endangered species constantly washed away by the rain... In the context of Ireland, we think of nuns their decline in numbers and recent accusations of abuse. The monologue is remarkably lucid yet disconnected, as though the subject’s brain has been wrongly assembled. Living in Brussels has intensified Barry’s relationship to her native language and displaced her within it. Finally, the character talks of hanging around to hear the truth and at the end of 26 minutes, the joke is on us.