Conversations With Friends: 'You can’t control how many people you love'
Sasha Lane and Cork actress Alison Oliver in Conversations With Friends, adapted from Sally Rooney's novel. Picture: Anna Lenihan
In spring of 2020, starved of human contact during those ominous first weeks of lockdown, the hearts of viewers up and down the country were captured by the steamy and emotional BBC television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s award-winning novel Normal People.
The romantic drama series certainly left a legacy, kickstarting the careers of stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal, and delivering huge audiences for both RTÉ and BBC.
It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that the creators of Normal People have mined Sally Rooney’s back catalogue for more. 2022’s Conversations With Friends, adapted from Rooney’s 2017 debut novel of the same name, follows Dublin student Frances and her best friend/ex-girlfriend Bobbi as they find themselves entwined in a complicated web of love affairs with a married couple.
Frances, 21, played by Cork actress Alison Oliver, and Bobbi, performed by Loki’s Sasha Lane, broke up three years ago, but are still virtually inseparable. They catch the eye of Melissa, played by Sex Education’s Jemima Kirke, a successful writer in her thirties, at one of their Dublin spoken word poetry performances. The students begin to spend a lot of time with Melissa and her husband Nick, played by Joe Alwyn (whose increased profile still won’t prevent him being referred to as the ‘boyfriend of Taylor Swift’).
Melissa and Bobbi openly flirt with one another, but Nick and Frances’ romantic and sexual affair is kept secret despite its intensity. It’s not long before the secrecy begins to test the bond between Frances and Bobbi and forces Frances to confront a personal and moral identity crisis.
The main message of the story, Oliver says, is one of the freedom and fragility of love.
“I think what I took away from the story, and what I hope people will take away is: you can’t control who you love or how many people you love, you can’t control how it’s going to work out or how you’re going to feel about it,” she says. “You can only just love people and hope for the best.”
Similarly, Alwyn, also a huge fan of Rooney’s work, says he felt a kinship with his character, 32-year-old actor Nick.
“There’s a lot that’s different, but there are similarities,” he says. “Some of the things that he’s struggled with or moments of doubt, periods of being low, I can kind of relate to, but also periods of being happy. There’s an essence to him that I’m similar with, as much as there is circumstantially quite a lot different. That’s a very Nick way of answering – quite evasive, cryptic and guarded.”
Compared to Normal People’s love story narrative, Conversations With Friends is far more abstract. It’s a complex coming-of-age drama, more about character development and interpersonal relationships than conventional plot. As Kirke, who plays Melissa in the TV adaptation, puts it: “Aside from an affair, nothing really happens.”
Instead, the nuanced story is led by quiet moments: fleeting glances, the way objects are passed between characters, the electricity of an illicit brush of fingers, a whispering intake of breath. Rooney is often lauded for this minimalist method of storytelling in her prose, but it’s a tricky job to translate this to screen for writers, directors and actors.
“The team that made Normal People really broke new ground in the world of television in creating something that was more low-key than you might expect from a TV show, that sort of allowed you to sit in moments with the characters,” says Leanne Welham, who directed the programme alongside Irish filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson.
“There’s a desire for that, for audiences to have an opportunity to not just be sort of hit over the head with plot on a story, but to actually have those quieter moments and to construct episodes around moments of nuance.
“Moments that you wouldn’t think of as dramatic, but actually in the context of the story and the series, do actually feel incredibly tense. As a director it’s really amazing to do that.”
If Conversations With Friends’ predecessor is anything to go by, its stars are facing an imminent catapult to fame. Perhaps none will feel this more so than Oliver: this is the Ballintemple actor's first TV role after recently graduating from The Lir Academy in Dublin, the same drama school attended by Normal People’s Paul Mescal.
“It feels like a big responsibility taking on those characters and this story, but I think once we started rehearsing and started filming, you just become so consumed in your character’s world that you can’t think too far ahead,” she says.
“I was just a huge fan of Sally’s book, first and foremost,” adds Alwyn, discussing his surprising lack of nerves ahead of the programme’s release. “To be invited into her world, and Lenny’s world – I was such a fan of Lenny as a filmmaker beforehand – that was the main thing that I got caught up in.
“Of course, there’s a bit of nerves in following something that’s incredibly loved, and rightly so, but I think it just feels like a privilege, lucky to be a part of it more than anything.”
- Conversations With Friends begins on BBC Three on Sunday, May 15; and RTÉ One on Wednesday, May 18, with two episodes weekly
