In this latest telling of a 3,000-year-old story about the fall of Troy, Marina Carr has amplified the woman’s perspective during times of testosterone fuelled slaughter and mayhem. Her Hecuba stands witness to the worst men can do when released from law and drunk on violence. From a bottomless pit of despair she presents a hauntingly simple but unarguable truth: “Society cannot run if women are unhappy.”
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Director Gregory Doran and actor Alex Hassell memorably presented Prince Harry’s riotous youth with the roguish old knight Falstaff in Henry IV. Now he’s under the microscope on the hottest of hot seats, the throne. A process leavened by the introduction of some worthy and valid humour . . . Hassell’s performance too is nigh miraculous. It ranges from isolated, tense fixation as he affects the authority he strives to build – voice and movement full of edgy introversion, to assured soldierly bonhomie as success crowns his efforts.
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Paterson Joseph delivers a performance that is hard to fault in Sancho: An Act of Remembrance. He begins the show as himself, in plain garbs, introducing his audience to Ignatius Sancho. Joseph’s passion for the subject matter is evident and he sets the tone for what follows: warm, buoyant and didactic . . . He is funny, too. Rarely does anyone (particularly in a one-man show) pull off audience interaction with such charm and humour as he does here. The rapport that he builds with the audience feels genuine and lays the groundwork for later emotional beats that he hits, making them all the more effective.
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This is an imagined reworking of the Orpheus and Euridice myth by Little Bulb Theatre in which Django Reinhardt, the famed gypsy jazz guitarist of the inter-war years Paris, acts out the role of Orpheus opposite a nightclub chanteuse. It’s a flimsy conceit, but allows a very talented group to entertain with some style. If you like your gypsy guitarists suave, dumb and with a permanent air of noble sacrifice, this Django is for you. . . . The silliness of much of the dumb show mixed with an effervescent bonhomie and vivacity of presentation, together with a great sense of fun and no small musical talent, whisk the whole concoction into a joy not to be missed.
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Living Quarters may not be one of Friel’s greatest plays; it lacks the originality and sustained power of Dancing At Lughnasa or Translations. Nevertheless it has much to offer, and it is hard to imagine it being performed better. This is an excellent production of a play that speaks of some universal truths about the choices we make in our lives. It is also a play rooted in Ireland – a country that, more than most, seems unable to escape from the clutches of its own past. Highly recommended.
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Adapted directly from the Stephen King novel by Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns. Andy Dufresne (Ian Kelsey), a sensitive, thoughtful man, wrongly convicted for the murder of his wife and her lover, initially finds himself to be the ‘outsider’ inside the penitentiary and buddies up with the only other rounded human being, Ellis ‘Red’ Redding (Patrick Robinson), who has been rightfully convicted for a crime of passion . . . those unfamiliar with the story will also find a moving testament to human resilience in this cleverly staged and compelling production.
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