The Wheelchair On My Face

Civic Theatre, Tallaght, Dublin Ends Feb 11 8.15pm 15/10 01-4627477 civictheatre.ie; Mill Theatre, Dundrum, Dublin Feb 16-17 8pm 14/10 01-2969340 milltheatre.ie

Sonya Kelly has a funny way of seeing things. The actor and comedian approaches the world curiously, as though trying to discover some shape in all life’s fuzziness. Is the reason for such an innocent, wry personality simply poor eyesight?

Kelly’s entertaining one-woman show (developed for Fishamble’s Show in a Bag series) is, paradoxically, a short-sighted memoir told with great clarity.

As a child, for instance, Kelly had a reputation for being unusually affectionate, climbing on to the laps of family members or strangers and reaching for their faces. In truth, it was the only way she could identify them.

“And so it was discovered why I’d thrown bread to the floating crisp packets in our local pond,” she says in director Gina Moxley’s zippy, warm-hearted production, “and walked into lamp posts and said, ‘excuse me’.”

Thick bottle-end glasses place another barrier between a seven-year-old girl and her peers – it’s bittersweet for a myopic kid to discover that the childhood world runs on appearances – and an endearingly gauche Kelly must confide her worries to a fold- out ABBA album cover.

There’s a lot we could recommend about the winning humour, elegant plotting and uplifting pay-off of Kelly’s show. But really you should see for yourself.

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