Fringe Festival Review: Point Blank

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The Dublin Fringe Festival opened tonight, and knowing nothing about most of the companies, venues, or performers involved, I spent a few hours in a cafe pouring over the program book in an attempt to find performances of interest. It's quite a new thing for me to choose shows without knowing any of the above information - as a somewhat professional theatre-goer, I am usually armed with a lot more information. But in some ways it is a relief to come at things so purely, without preconceptions. I might end up seeing some real groaners, but then again, I won't really feel compelled to see anything because I know someone in it, or I've seen that company's work before.

Tonight I saw Point Blank, written and directed by Edit Kaldor, and performed by Nada Gambier. It was at the upstairs space of the Project Arts Centre (which, quite brilliantly, is also right around the corner from my new flat, the Irish Film Archive, and the Farmer's Market -- have I scored, or what?).  The performance was excellent, and concept deceptively simple: a young woman finishes highschool and travels to find out what she wants to do in life. She takes thousands of pictures using a powerful zoom lens. The pictures are voyeuristic -- couples kissing on balconies, an old woman eating by herself inside her apartment -- but the young woman's interest in them is introspective and philosophical. By showing us the picutres, and discussing the taxonomy she is trying to create around them, Point Blank provides a very thoughtful meditation on the everyday, which, of course, is more profound than we usually want to believe. I highly recommend it to anyone in Dublin, and I believe it is also touring to other Fringe Festivals.