God’s Official

Civic Theatre, Tallaght

Robert Farquhar's God's Officialis a terrible play. There are characters, but they achieve no psychological depth. There is conflict of a sort, but no catharsis. There are themes, but they are forcefully revealed in single lines as the play draws to a close, as if the writer remembered suddenly that a play had to be more than a single gag. You might call it a situation comedy, but the joke that holds it all together isn't even that funny.

God’s Official is stretched across the premise that a football fan, Degsy, kidnaps the referee whose decision has relegated his local team. That summary provides most of the material for the play, as Farquhar’s dramaturgy consists of repeating the same lines over and over again. Key exchanges include: “It was a goal, it was a goal, it was a goal.” “It was a goal.” (Direct quote). Or “You did, you did, you did, you did.”

Yes, there is something quite pantomime-like about the whole affair. The point Farquhar is at pains to make – as becomes clear in the final third of the play when repetition finally gives way to exposition – is that, for Degsy, football is much more than a game. In the face of his unemployment, it is his life. In the face of his recently departed girlfriend, it is his love. In the face of a society he is excluded from, it is his community. In the face of his spiritual crisis, it is his religion.

But this is territory that has been explored before in the theatre, and with a great deal more subtlety. In the Irish context alone, Marie Jones's A Night in November, Dermot Bolger's In High Germanyand Peter McKenna's Missing Footballare just three examples.

Michael McCaffery brings some drama to Michael Scott’s spartan staging with harsh stadium lighting, while George McMahon and Edwin Mullane try their best to inject some momentum into the stalling, repetitive, adolescent sequences. Meanwhile, Mick Lally’s gagged and muffled humming and hawing provide the only moments of genuine humour.

Unfortunately, there is not much more that the performers or production team can do with material as thin as Farquhar’s play. Red card.

Until Saturday