Triskel Arts Centre

As he watches Cork's short-lived Little Red Bookshop go up in flames, a character in the Brown Penny production of Red Patriot says "I always said Stalin would light up the north side!" His Russian ideology is an ironic - and locally typical - counterpoint to Jimmy Crowley's rendering of the city's brief engagement with the Maoist revolution, centred in the proletariat suburbs north of the Lee. Russian or Chinese, communism was communism in those days, when dismissive Corkonians refused to abandon Padre Pio for the sake of Chairman Mao.

The charm of this piece is in Crowley's affectionate review of a time when words like bourgeoisie were new on the local tongue and UCC students went to preach collectivisation to the farmers of Cloyne. Bolstering the action with his own ballads and borrowed anthems, the effect is of a Mao musical, slightly crazy but endearing all the same.

Crowley writes with an honest hand and an accurate ear. The tone of the play is accurate and the piece offers a complete explanation of why people like Michael O'Riordan had to leave Cork if they were to be a communists at all.

While the talents of Ciaran Ruby, Eoin Slattery and Sean Healy especially deserve to be pointed out, this is a play that needs more substance. Also, the violent destruction of the revolutionary outpost is less than subtle. Musical Director Aisling Smyth holds everything together, even when her piano has to chase an errant tenor through several keys, and Catherine Mulvihill provides an evocative setting, with the moon over Shandon stencilled as a hammer and sickle. Announcing a welcome new departure for Jimmy Crowley Red Patriot suggests that he could contribute more to the subject once he gains in theatrical confidence. That shouldn't take long.

Red Patriot continues at the Triskel Arts Centre until February 25th. To book telephone 021 4272022.