Everyman Theatre | Review by Nieshanka Nanthakrishnakumar
Tender Tussle of Young Queer Love that Captures the Complexities
28 May 2025
ACT Hub is an intimate theatre venue tucked away in the more dimly lit suburban streets of Kingston. As you drive into Spinifex Street you are likely to be slightly puzzled as to your destination, but once you spot the warm orb of light that seeps through Causeway Hall, you know you are guaranteed a cosy night of independent theatre!
The cosiness is immediately contrasted by the aggressive (yet admittedly boppy) UK rap/drill that plays in the background of the hall. Unsure whether this is just the operator playing their own pre-show headbangers, you are soon to discover that the energetic soundtrack establishes the context for John O’Donovan’s mouthful of a play If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You, which is set in west Ireland, specifically in O’Donnovan’s home-town of Ennis, at a time where youth crime and male violence runs rampant. The play stars Robert Kjellgren as the tough, lad-next-door Mikey, who maintains a faultless and commendable Irish accent throughout, and Joshua James as the soft, tortured Casey, who compassionately performs his character’s torment.
At first instance, Mikey and Casey appear to be your average, reckless young men, who are on the run from the law after robbing a petrol station. But as you observe the cheeky, yet flirtatious body language between Kjellgren and James’s characters, you quickly catch onto the tension between them and realise that this is more than just two foolish friends running amok. The play centres around the two boys who are stuck on the roof of a house with only each other, some booze and cocaine, as they try to escape and avoid the police to make it in time for a party, which turns out to be a more important occasion than we are initially let in on.
If We Got Some More Cocaine…, at its heart, is your unconventional, young adult, romantic drama between a helpless yet hardened teenage boy and his slightly older situationship, who seemingly plays on his naivety and their age difference. However, this summation would be a disservice to O’Donovan, who plays on the forbidden gay lovers trope between an openly gay male and another closeted male who is coming to terms with his sexuality — a trope popularly and lovably depicted in Netflix originals through characters like Eric and Adam in Sex Education and Nick and Charlie in Heartstopper. To O’Donovan’s credit, he actualises a type of queer masculinity that is only reserved for the real world, to explore themes of male and LGBTQ+ violence, toxic parental love, and the agitated stasis of being stuck in a small town when the friends you grew up with have left.
If We Got Some More Cocaine… unpretentiously explores the paradox of feeling out of place in your home town as well as in a new town, the uncertainty of coming out post-legalising same-sex marriage, and the pain of loving someone who is not good to you. It also explores less heavy, yet still relatable experiences of pondering whether to go out or stay in, especially in the instance when you know you’re bound to bump into your ex.
Ultimately, O’Donnovan’s play confirms that sacrifice is at the centre of all great love stories. This tender tussle of young queer love, set on the roof of a house which provides a humble backdrop and doubles as a refuge for the lovers, has been carefully directed by Joel Horwood, who manages to capture the complexities and confusions of being young, gay and in love in a simultaneously old and new city, and grappling with the consequences for family and friend dynamics. Lachlan Houen’s play with warm and cool lighting allows the audience to enter into the character’s moments of nostalgia while tracing the journey from dusk to dark on a hallowed Halloween night. Kjellgren and James build their on-stage chemistry so beautifully that even if the audience cannot relate to the character’s respective turmoils, they would find it difficult not to empathise with them.
If We Got Some More Cocaine… is every bit as funny as it is tender. This heartwarming play is worth a watch, especially as Canberra gears up for a chilly winter.
Nieshanka Nanthakrishnakumar is a Sri Lankan Tamil-Australian performance poet and emerging writer and theatre-maker. She has performed at the Sydney Writers Festival and the Melbourne Spoken Word Festival, and has been published in the NSW Young Writers Showcase and the Australian Poetry Journal. She also recently participated as an artist in Canberra Theatre Centre’s 2025 New Ideas Lab.
