In the outskirts of modern-day Dublin, teenage Lily (Clara Harte) looks on the outside like a kid on top of the world: pretty, blessed with nice-enough middle-class parents and friends, good at the fiendishly aggressive stick-based sport Camogie that only the Irish play. But a recent exchange programme trip to San Francisco got her thinking she might be gay or bi, especially after a semi-chaste tryst with another young woman of her age. As the new school term starts, Lily’s friend Violet (Venetia Bowe) offers to “go lezzer” with Lily, and the two start snogging in the toilet – only to almost get caught by their peers. Keen to hold on to her popular-girl status, Violet makes out that Lily had been the more sexually aggressive and soon other kids are bullying Lily; she starts withdrawing, staying home from school and self-harming.
Only Lily’s friend Simon (Dean Quinn), the only out gay boy in the village, offers support. That includes taking her up to Dublin for a night out where they meet Oonagh (Amy-Joyce Hastings) who grumpily serves as their queer sensei, offering understanding, advice and reassurance that it will all be fine, more or less. Practically moments later, Simon and Lily fall in with a shady gay brother and sister team who take the younger kids to bed, which is definitely dodgy given the implied age difference and the fact that the siblings let a voyeuristic older man watch them making out because he pays them.
This is all more or less the beginning of a plot packed with melodramatic incident and issue-driven drama, from characters afflicted with gay panic, bigoted and alcoholic parents, older lovers torn apart by misaligned life goals, and suicide attempts. It is as if someone condensed a whole season of Euphoria but with more Guinness drinking. But even if it is all a bit overcooked, one can’t gainsay the sincerity of the performances, especially from Harte who makes for a convincingly confused teen. Quinn is also charming as her wise-cracking bestie, displaying impish comic timing throughout. Not all the performances are up to the same standard, but it would be like drowning puppies to pick out offenders in a work so much on the side of the angels.
• Who We Love is on digital platforms from 6 January.
