Frida Slattery As Herself by Ana Kinsella reviews – they won’t-they in the artistic love of theater | Fiction

TThe central characters in Frida Slattery As Herself, Ana Kinsella’s first novel, are Frida, 23 years old when the book opens, and John Reddan, five years old. They all live in Dublin. Frida likes to play, but she never acted, and she never went to drama school. John is a writer-director who recently starred in “reality theater”. What is compelling about Frida is not what she says, thinks or does, but who she is, and that is a big part of what Kinsella writes in her. Frida, we learn, was “drunk” at the theater. “Every time he got off the stage, he felt like an award winner.

However, Frida’s ambitions are not going anywhere. Later he tells his friend Catherine, who at the university was very successful in making students, but now has a proper job (“He had an espresso machine and Frida lived in bed”). “I just want something to happen,” said Frida. Catherine tells Frida to John. They meet in Kehoe’s pub, then he asks Frida to take him on what turns out to be a long, strange trip to Dublin, where he asks her out. They also ask what they are working on: “Are there any roles for women in their early twenties?” He replies, “Frida, is that how you think of yourself?”

Something sticks to both of them. John, we learn little by little, is taken by Frida – with her looks, and the fact that she is free to tell him what she thinks. Frida is obsessed with John, perhaps because of the opportunity he represents. Was it possible to date someone you didn’t want to kiss?

The 12 episodes that follow see them working together, and living in different cities (London, Los Angeles, New York) between 2005 and 2021. They take a one-woman show to high schools around Ireland, driving John’s car and staying in budget B&Bs. Another career becomes more attractive: by the time they are both in their 30s, Frida is involved in a popular television show in the US, and John is a successful director of a theater and a play that goes to Broadway. They date for a while, break up, give in to each other in different ways, and circle each other’s careers from a distance.

In a way the engine of the book is romance – will they end up together? – but while this preserves the plot, the magic of their partnership comes, delightfully, in their creative partnership. Frida in particular is an interesting character because her spontaneity and self-doubt make her feel real; John, the thinker, is perhaps a little indifferent. However, the most enjoyable parts of the book are when they are together, writing, editing, revising, testing. Their relationship is clear: Frida is an actress who cannot see her influence, John a director who realizes that his best things come from the people he works with, especially from Frida. Within the confident charm of a well-written love story, Frida Slattery As Herself is a masterful, unconventional book – witty, surprising and unexpected in the way of great theatre.