Sonya Kelly’s How to Keep an Alien, directed by Gina Moxley was a great treat. Sonya is an actor struggling to dance in a fur coat and talk in an upper crust English accent while pretending to be Russian. Acting is a curious way to earn a living. The assistant stage manager, Kate from Queensland, shares her frustrations and a romance based on how they might commit suicide to get out of the contract, develops.

It becomes love. Kate is Australian and her visa is about to run out. The play then traces the path of people from different countries trying to get a resident’s visa for one of them and is richly woven with their actual day-to-day loves and insecurities.

Justin Murphy is the remainder of the cast, playing everything from Sonya’s sound track operator to the immigration official. Their rapport is evident all the way through and their comic timing spot on.

The script contains a wealth of hilarious one-liners while by no means relying on them to be funny. There’s a lot of physical and situational comedy, too. Taken all together, a wonderful afternoon. Oh, and if you want to apply for a de facto Irish visa, the dossier needs to be around four inches thick and contain EVIDENCE. Letters from friends and relatives, tickets for shows, receipts from meals out, photographs…

Run continues, Traverse 2