Reviewed today are The Mysteries at the Gaiety Theatre, See You Next Tuesday at the Gate Theatre, The Blood and Fire Show at the Project Space Upstairs, Golden Boy at the Pavilion Theatre and Nocturne/SS Michael and John.
The Mysteries/Gaiety Theatre
One of the great impulses of popular culture in what used to be called Christendom was the urge to inhabit the Bible. Over the last 1,000 years or so, the poor have defied those who see them as mean and insignificant by fusing their own struggle with the epic narrative of the Old and New Testaments.
This impulse is there in the peasant revolutionaries who asked "When Adam delved and Eve span/ Who was then the gentleman?". In Jim Larkin's furious assurance to the bosses of Dublin that "You'll crucify Christ in this town no longer." In the Rastafarian appropriation of Exodus. In the great speeches of Martin Luther King.
This habit of mind is embodied in the plays that are at the root of the modern western theatrical tradition, the Mystery plays of the 14th and 15th centuries. Apart from the ecclesiastical dramas incorporated into church ceremonies, the Chester cycle of Mysteries were the very first plays performed in Dublin.
It is apt, therefore, that the Dublin Theatre Festival should welcome a production based on the Chester cycle.
Much more importantly, however, the Broomhill Opera from South Africa brings a version that is completely in tune with that great tradition of using the Biblical epics to ennoble the struggles of the oppressed.
Under the direction of Mark Dornford-May and composer Charles Hazlewood, a 36-strong cast of mostly black South Africans brings an astonishing urgency to these old texts. They draw on strengths that are barely available to European performers: a living, demotic tradition of dance and choral music, a culture in which notions of chieftainship are sufficiently alive to make God imaginable, a surviving folk religion in which miracles and magic have a continuing presence.
Most of all, though, they draw on the experience of suffering, struggle and hope. They are not embarrassed by the epic sweep of mythic events because they have lived through struggles on a Biblical scale. Just as the original Mysteries had the water-carrier play Noah and the carpenter play Joseph, they put the mythic stories in touch with the daily lived experience of their country's resurrection.
Herod and the Pharisees are fat tribal bigwigs in league with power. Pilate is a supercilious white official, keeping his conscience clean by letting others do the dirty work. The Massacre of the Innocents, carried out by black-clad baton-wielding policemen, is a re-run of the Soweto massacre. Vumile Nomanyama's crucified Christ brings Steve Biko to mind. The crowd about to stone the woman taken in adultery carry the rubber tyres used to "necklace" alleged traitors.
This vivid, unforced immediacy carries over into the small details as well. Noah's wife, for example, doesn't want to get on the Ark because she's absorbed in a glossy magazine. Andries Mbali's compelling Satan wears a red leather suit like a preening township pimp. The Apostles look and move like migrant workers on the road.
None of this is naïve or primitive.
On the contrary, this is an extremely sophisticated piece of work, weaving together the music and language of South Africa's four cultural main traditions (Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans and English) with European art music, Broadway choreography with an African confidence in direct physical expression and western theatrical styles with a story-telling culture rooted in something far older.
There is also a deep and moving political sophistication in the way the production embodies a commitment to a multi-cultural South Africa. The embrace of Europe in the commitment to the plays themselves, and the willingness of black performers to use English and Afrikaans is itself an astonishingly gracious act of forgiveness that makes the Christianity of the plays far more than an act of piety.
The result is a recreation of a key part of European theatrical heritage but with a conviction that no European company could bring to it now. You will never get a better chance to bathe in the wellsprings of western theatre than by plunging into these turbulent, vibrant, moving and ultimately glorious Mysteries. - Fintan O'Toole
See You Next Tuesday/Gate Theatre
One tends to think of French farce as sophisticated, fast-moving stuff heavily sprinkled with satire. Francis Veber's Le Diner de Cons, adapted by Ronald Harwood as See You Next Tuesday and now having its English language première, is another kettle of comedy.
This could be straight from the West End, a vehicle for laughter without a serious thought in its head. The plot concerns a publisher with a good-looking wife, a sultry mistress and all the other trappings of success.
Pierre also has a hobby; once a week he and his friends have some manifest eccentric to dinner, where they have a superior laugh at his foibles.
It all comes unstuck when their choice falls on François, a tax official whose obsession is making matchstick models.
François has a genius for putting other people's feet in it. In no time he has managed to let Pierre's wife know about the mistress, informed the latter of her lowly status, brought in a tax man who eyes Pierre's obvious prosperity, and created general havoc in a hamfisted attempt to be helpful.
He is the outsize cuckoo in the nest, the wizard of the double whammy.
All this with more of the same is cleverly structured and, since it is comedy pure and simple, the spotlight falls on the acting.
Are the actors funny, is their timing on the button, do they create the elements of surprise to jolt the audience into laughter?
Enter Ardal O'Hanlon as François, looking and sounding just like the gormless curate from the TV series Father Ned - and just as mirth-inducing. If there is a sense of déjà vu about his performance, he is undeniably a good fit for the role.
Anchored to this professional comedian, the others fall into place.
Risteard Cooper is the distraught Pierre, Fiona Bell his wife, Fiona O' Shaughnessy the mistress, Michael James Ford a friend, John Kavanagh the taxman and Brian McGrath a doctor.
Under Robin Lefevre's direction, in Liz Ashcroft's sumptuous set, they provide an evening of light-hearted escapism.
No need to fasten the seatbelts; this is a relaxez vous ride. - Gerry Colgan Runs to Nov 9th
The Blood and Fire Show/Project Space Upstairs
Director Gerry Morgan and his irrepressible troupe return with another example of the genre they have made their own; fast-moving theatre which tackles the fragility of human suffering by blasting it with the searing song and energy of an enormous cast. Seventeen actors and a band swarm the dramatically-lit stage to recreate the four-day religious frenzy of the 1889 Council of War, when William Booth led the Salvation Army into Newcastle to preach revelation. While some presences stand out amid the crazed interaction to powerfully depict the unsettling blend of hope and terror roused by God, ultimately the omnipresence which dominates this production is more irritating than inspirational. Eanna Hickey, "sleep-deprived" according to the programme, lets us know once again that he can do everything: musical direction, composition, lead role, instrumentation and loudest singing, all at once, to the detriment of the piece. Get some kip, Eanna, and let this talented ensemble be an ensemble for a change. - Belinda McKeon
Golden Boy/Pavilion Theatre
English company Broadway Productions have revived US playwright Clifford Odets's 1937 play, Golden Boy, which was an immense popular success in those Depression years. Set in New York, Joe Bonaparte (Philip Bulcock) is an Italian violinist who, against the wishes of his family, chooses to box professionally for money instead of playing music for no financial reward. He has chosen materialism over his own instincts and the consequences are predictable.
This play had definite social resonances in its day, but its crude storyline - man makes wrong decision, man ruins his personal and professional life - does not make a successful transition to 2002. Everything is told, not shown; there are no subtleties of dramatic action to challenge or intrigue a modern audience. The large cast of 16 struggle to lift a performance, which, clunking along for two and a half hours, is overlong and unrewarding. - Rosita Boland
Nocturne/SS Michael and John
Young actor Rory Nolan can't but have been daunted by his first read of this racing, charged piece, which explores the psychological aftermath of family devastation. Adam Rapp's script hauls his guilt-ravaged protagonist to and fro between the memory of his young sister's death and the struggle to piece together his own life in an elaborate and richly metaphorical monologue that lasts almost two hours.
Yet Nolan carries it off with assurance; the sheer physical and emotional impact of his stage presence is astounding. Rapp writes beautifully, excavating the tortuous layers of grief with precision, but even making his character into a novelist can't hide the fact that his language is too heavily textured for the stage.
Under Darragh McKeon's direction, however, Nolan makes a fine job of dramatising his prosaic script, channelling the arduous contours of tragedy through the very sinews of his body. - Belinda McKeon
Booking
Dublin Fringe Festival:
1850 374643 or online at www.fringefest.com
Dublin Theatre Festival:
01 8173333 or www.dublintheatrefestival.com
