Big Toys

RAMBO Productions is the latest of the small new theatrical companies currently setting up in Cork and makes its debut at the…

RAMBO Productions is the latest of the small new theatrical companies currently setting up in Cork and makes its debut at the Granary with Big Toys, written and directed by Brian Desmond. Youthfully pessimistic if not exactly profound, the play is economically performed as a version of - at a guess - the ideas explored in, for example, Kubrick's 2001. Its four players move from Neanderthal Man to fighter pilot through a series of dimly felt (and, it must be said, dimly seen) evolutionary exchanges. There is even a new-born baby at the end. The language is readily grasped: Dah, on the interrogative, is friendly, Gah unmistakably otherwise, with Guh somewhere in between. Mime and sound effects fill the intervening void; Desmond should ensure that mime is as fully convincing as the sound - it is a discipline and not a device. As an ensemble piece Big Toys shows a cohesive approach from the cast; its moments of connection suggest a talent capable of breaking free from a possibly necessary quotient of bewilderment and obscurity.

Big Toys continues at The Granary until June 26th.

Mary Leland

Mary Leland is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in culture