Barabbas, the company, has taken Lennox Robinson's very well-made 1916 play, unmade it, and re-made it to suit its own extraordinary talents. A West End hit in 1917, after its initial presentation at the Abbey, the play is a light-hearted comedy about the small-town social pretensions and self-deceptions which beset the Geoghegan family.
It's set around Mrs Geoghegan's perception of son Denis as the great white hope, studying medicine in Trinity College above in Dublin, while the rest of her brood linger in the village of Ballycolman.
Denis, unofficially betrothed to Delia Duffy, daughter of the Ballycolman gombeen man, is unable to live up to mother's expectations and the family decide to deport him to Canada.
Barabbas has turned the piece on its dramatic head by the simplest of manoeuvres: they deploy the author's substantial stage directions as much as his dramatic text and, between the four of them, play all 12 of his characters regardless of mismatch between gender of character and player.
As might be expected, Gerard Stembridge's direction is deft, original, inventive and drama-defying.
The playing, by Mikel Murfi, Veronica Coburn, Raymond Keane and Louis Lovett, is daft, disciplined, hyperactive, irreverent and frequently convulsively funny.
Sean Hillen's production design and Paul Keogan's lighting design reflect both the author's purpose and Barabbas's subversion excellently.
It does not all work all of the time: sometimes the overtly theatrical devices designed to expose the author's original construction and instructions get in the way of driving the plot along, and there is a constant feeling of threat when one actor must play both parts in a duologue.
But, extraordinarily, the whole theatrical confection remains tongue-in-cheek faithful to Mr Robinson's original intention, and most of it is much funnier than any 80year-old light comedy has any right to be. Appropriately, it received a standing ovation from last night's audience. Playing until Saturday, October 4th. Bookings at (01) 671 2321.
