Perfidia

TheatreUpstairs, Lanigan’s Bar, Eden Quay, Dublin Until Jul 14 1pm €10 (incl lunch) theatreupstairs@gmail.com 086-2449511

Jimmy Murphy’s new play for TheatreUpstairs begins with one unhappy departure and one cautious new arrival. Any resemblance to the experiences of this bruised but determined lunchtime pub theatre, which abruptly ceased trading two years ago at another venue and now makes its long-awaited return within a new home above Lannigan’s bar, is entirely coincidental.

Instead, Murphy’s short two-hander provides a reversal of fortunes and a glimpse of society in transition, where one woman, Niamh (Una Kavanagh, far left), who can’t afford her Celtic Tiger era mortgage, is awaiting eviction from her apartment, while another, single mother Ciara (Roseanna Purcell, left), is being housed in the same building by the council.

What follows, gradually, is a dispute on the nature of responsibility and entitlement, during which each woman finds the value of her investment may fall as well as plummet.

True, the dialogue follows a strict blueprint between the squeezed middle class and the embattled poor, but with Peter Gaynor making his directorial debut in a venue committed to new writing, this announces something more: a space that is as much an actor’s theatre as a site of new creative opportunities. Right now, it could be a new home for everyone.

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