RATING
Director(s): Dawn Shadforth
Country: United Kingdom
Actor(s): Lola Petticrew, Tom Cullen, Gillian Anderson
Written by Tom Augustine
One of the drawbacks of the age of digital cameras, with sensors capable of rendering everything in crisp, stark reality, is that period art design has become a hell of a lot harder to achieve with any kind of verisimilitude. Something about the uncanny artificiality of digital footage, in contrast to the invitingly textural feeling of film, ironically lessens the ability to allow us to sink into a time long gone. When a digitally shot show achieves it, then, I find myself far more willing to follow it deep into its episode count. Such is the case with Trespasses, the much buzzed-about Irish miniseries adapted from the novel by Louise Kennedy. So deftly does the series conjure the atmosphere of Troubles-era Ireland that I found my skepticism of a series described elsewhere as Normal People meets Say Nothing evaporating by the minute. From the off, as we find ourselves in the middle of a tense exchange in a dingy Belfast pub, one can practically taste the cigarette smoke, feel the mildew on the windows, sense the layers of grime that seem to coat everything. There is warmth, too, a sense of a space people are living in — it is not enough to place period-specific props, we need to feel that they are part of the world we’re watching. As Trespasses unfolds, so too does ‘70s Belfast before our eyes, the scars of conflict and colonial-religious tension everywhere, as well as plenty of folks just trying to live their lives — and, in secret, a forbidden love affair starting to bloom.
Sharing a lead cast-member with Say Nothing, that defining Disney+ series adapted from Patrick Radden Keefe’s novel, Trespasses is ultimately less interested in tracing the drama of the Troubles than using it as a vivid and haunting backdrop to a story of star-cross’d lovers. Lola Petticrew, Say Nothing’s central femme fatale, stars as Cushla, a Catholic primary school teacher who moonlights at her brother’s bar and cares for her mother (Gillian Anderson), a barely-functioning alcoholic. In Belfast, the conflict between largely Catholic Irish Republicans and Northern Irish Protestants rages on — and Protestant barrister Michael (Tom Cullen) is at the centre of it. Known for representing Catholics in the hope that it might slow the flow of violence, Michael faces enmity from both Protestants who view him as a traitor and Catholics who see him as a symbol of the oppressive system that holds them down. To Cushla, far younger than the married Michael, he is a suave and enigmatic source of excitement, possibly even salvation. Their torrid, secret love affair is forbidden on many levels — a fact underscored by Cushla’s interactions with a young boy at her school, an outcast whose Catholic father has been beaten to an inch of his life for loving a Protestant woman. Hovering over it all is a foreboding prologue, in which Cushla picks through the burning remains of the pub some six months in the future.
Premiering exclusively on Rialto Channel, Irish miniseries Trespasses is a vivid rendering of Troubles-era Northern Ireland couched in a complex and sensual love affair. A trio of strong performances highlight a tortured emotional landscape, oscillating between woozy romantic melodrama and chilling historical recreation.
The stakes, and tension, are established early and never lessen, our knowledge of the other shoe dropping and discovery of Cushla and Michael’s tryst forever on the horizon. And yet, Trespasses is not a joyless show. This is largely down to Petticrew, whose determined and flintily optimistic Cushla is a riveting force. If Say Nothing was not enough of a testament to her potential star power, Trespasses should alleviate all doubt — she sells both the thrilling, crackling flirtation and the devastating trauma of Cushla’s waking life, bypassing doubts of tonal clash. Indeed, if her and Cullen’s chemistry weren’t so richly rendered, Trespasses’ seesawing between the poles of sexy, woozy romance and stark brutality would not be nearly as successful. Anderson, here ceding the limelight to her young co-star, is regardless a fascinating supporting presence, her agonised, gin-soaked Gina a tragic figure in the mould of Norma Desmond, or a Tennessee Williams character. Again, in the hands of a lesser craftsman, its outsized nature would stick out like a sore thumb — but somehow everything works in tandem.
Post-Brexit, Irish reunification has been a hot topic, one that trails tendrils of historical pain. I was struck, watching Trespasses, how ultimately arbitrary the distinction between Catholic and Protestant is, and how such animosity — to the point where the idea of a ‘mixed relationship’ is brought up repeatedly — seems relatively absurd in the modern way of thinking. Ultimately, it is not the religion that is the key difference at all, but allegiance to the Crown. As has always been the case, such enmity has been exacerbated and manipulated by the pervasive, overhanging might of colonial rule, whose survival depends on the smallfolk having a foe to focus on that isn’t them. The feud between Protestant and Catholic in this light feels not far removed from the religious and cultural divides we are belaboured with today — the enemy may change, but the power structure remains the same. Trespasses is, at least in the two episodes provided for review, largely undeclared as to which side of the reunification divide it stands, perhaps an abdication of duty. The love affair, while involving to the most, care of some fine performances and delicate, sensual direction, serves as a sturdy structure to deliver a message of ‘both sides bear some responsibility for the situation we find ourselves in’. This hedge-sitting acquits no one well, and one hopes that Trespasses eventually carves a deeper line in the sand. Until then, we have the trials and tribulations of Cushla, one of the more distinctive romantic heroines we’ve had on television in recent years. If Petticrew’s ascension is solidified by Trespasses, that’ll be a success in and of itself.
Trespasses – New episodes air every Sunday from 22 March at 8:30pm on Sky’s Rialto Channel, or catch up anytime on Sky Go.