Death (on a Shoestring)

Grand Opera House, Belfast

HEAVEN IS in one unholy mess. God has retired, Death (Stephen Clarke) has taken to drink and strike action, while celestial affairs are being horribly mismanaged by a pair of deranged angels, Diligence (Morgaine FitSymons) and Chastity (Daisy Brindley). The place is overcrowded, the natives are growing restive and troublesome, queues are lengthening by the day, and the rules for admission are, of necessity, becoming ever more draconian.

Inequality, intolerance, prejudice and religious fundamentalism rule and, in this Animal Farm-inspired parallel universe, life is now all about the survival of the fittest. In other words, as it is on Earth, so it is in heaven.

This is the starting point for Dave Kinghan's play for Accidental, one of the new wave of Belfast-based theatre companies starting to make its mark with enterprising initiatives involving young writers and practitioners.

The compact Baby Grand performance space of the Grand Opera House is a black box, hung with cloud-embossed suitcases, signifying upwardly mobile journeys. Out of the darkness steps Gary Crossan's spookily made-up, ukelele-strumming narrator Death, a top-hatted ringmaster figure, echoing the Halloween costumes in the streets and shop windows outside. In his last outing in Ruff Theatre's Much Ado About Nothing, Crossan displayed an impressively focused stage presence, and here his glinting interventions act as both a musical diversion and an anchor to the unravelling narrative madness.

Accidental's artistic director Richard Lavery has instilled imagination and a high work ethic into the exuberant efforts of his cast, but the sheer weight of tedious political correctness and oh-so-significant messages, introduced by Róisín Magee's earnest activist Cecilia Malarkey MBE, drains the life out of what started out as a promising, if slight, dramatic concept.

As a result, with the exception of Crossan and Chris Grant – as a slightly over-camped gay researcher – the performances register as one-note and somewhat lacking in polish.

Run concluded