Monthly Archives: January 2016

Spandex Blues – Review

Smock Alley

27/1/16

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If you thought sibling rivalry was a problem in your family, you have nothing on E, Dublin’s greatest super-villain, youngest member of Dublin’s greatest superhero family. Written by Diane Crotty and directed by David Doyle, Spandex Blues is the simple but royally entertaining story of E, super-villain and little sister.

Both performers, Diane Crotty as E and Luke Casserly as Henchie, deliver engaging and enthusiastic performances. Crotty brings a great balance to her role, prompting gales of laughter throughout, while still conveying the more serious elements of her story with a touching sincerity. Her fluctuation in tone kept the piece moving apace and never let the energy burn out or flag. The cast also managed audience participation admirably, effectively moving what was a rather nervous audience to a point where they were willing to join Casserly in singing the Mission Impossible theme tune.

The design is simple and, for the most part, effective. The pre-set, with a video of various locations around Dublin city projected onto a white-board and surrounded by planning diagrams immediately framed the setting while also showing that it was not entirely the usual Dublin city. The lighting design has a few minor issues, with too much shadow falling on the actors’ faces at times, though that was also a case of the actors not always finding their light. That is, however, a small complaint about what was, overall a very entertaining piece of theatre.

Spandex Blues will make you both laugh out loud and pause to think, and most of all it will transform your view of the number 16 bus through Drumcondra forever.

Microdisney – Review

microdisney

The New Theatre

18/1/15

Neil Flynn’s Microdisney is an entertaining but thoroughly heartbreaking piece of theatre. Having escaped from an institution or psychiatric hospital and her “woman,” Clodagh Corona explores her hometown of Tralee for the first time in years. As she traverses the town, she gradually shares the story of how she came to be admitted when she was only eight years old. Sitting on her “island” in the middle of the town she tells the story of the fateful day Geraghty brought her “back the tide.”

Judith Ryan delivers an impressive performance as Clodagh, bringing a potent energy and physicality to the performance.  Though only a snapshot of Clodagh’s life is presented, it is evident that she is a complex character, and Ryan brings all of the influences on her character and behaviour together to create a strong, engaging and heart-achingly real character on the stage. Working excellently with the fluctuations in intensity and emotion in the script, Ryan keeps the audience captured in the story from start to finish.

Flynn’s script is a clever blend of poetry and natural speech that patters along apace, meaning that when Ryan pauses, the moments of silence are as powerful as the words in conveying Clodagh’s experiences. The ballet scene is a moving and striking interlude in Clodagh’s story, though a smoother transition from speech to music would have made it even stronger.  Also deserving of a mention with particular regard to this scene is the lighting design by Cathy O’Carroll. Though simple, the design really comes into its own in this scene as the shadows from the floor lights dance with Clodagh.

Microdisney is a moving and engaging work that tells an all-too heartbreakingly recognisable tale (versions of which were experienced by many women across the country) with sensitivity and passion.

Microdisney runs at The New Theatre until 23rd Jan before touring.

The Importance of Being Earnest – Review

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Gate Theatre

16/01/16

Although it was first staged just short of 121 years ago, Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, still feels fresh and, well, earnest. Even in reading the text, the vigour with which each character lives their lives is infectious; in performance it becomes a feast of vivacious madcap antics. Earnest fits the style of the Gate theatre perfectly, and Patrick Mason does a superb job with it.

Marty Rea’s acting has always impressed me, but in this production he truly came into his own, revealing perfect comic timing and a flair for face-pulling akin to Danny Kaye. Of the three portrayals of the character of Jack Worthing I have seen, this is the only one that I feel does justice to the character.  The rest of the cast all deliver impressive performances, with every actor pulling their weight.  Particularly notable were Lisa Dwyer Hogg and Lorna Quinn making the perfect duo as Gwendolen and Cecily, bouncing the energy of the two characters back and forth with sharp but easy precision.

From here, I wish to turn to the set, designed by Francis O’Connor. Few sets can capture the tone of a piece and the nuances of the characters that inhabit each setting as well as O’Connor’s does. With a relatively bare pre-set, we have little clue as to how much the set is going to bring to the production (though the addition of an image of Wilde on the back wall was a clever and playful touch!). Soon however, the many surprises of the set are revealed as a whole host of sliding panels and extensions transform into the home of Algernon Moncrieff, with everything a well-to-do dandy could want, through a garden, to the home of Jack, the polar opposite of the foppish Algy.

Wilde himself described Earnest as “exquisitely trivial,” and that was certainly the feeling in the auditorium at the Gate. I regretted wearing eyeliner as tears of laughter streamed down my face; from polite titters to uproarious belly laughs, the room rippled almost constantly with a wave of collective laughter.  This production of The Importance of Being Earnest is a lively, smart and suitably irreverent evening of Wildean wit and frivolity.

The Importance of Being Earnest runs until 6th February 2016.