Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me

Tivoli Theatre, Dublin

Frank McGuinness's 1992 play Someone Who'll Watch Over Meis an intense and layered study of identity in captivity. The story loosely evokes the real-life kidnapping and torture of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy in Lebanon in the late 1980s and, as the action is confined to a small single cell, the play becomes a gripping character study of identity in crisis, of human beings breaking down, reimagining themselves and adapting anew to their circumstances.

McGuinness pits three characters against each other: an irreverent Irishman, Edward (Charlie Bonner); an effete Englishman, Michael (Duncan Hamilton); and an American stoic, Adam (Malachy McKenna). The imbalance of the triangular vision sets the scene for changing loyalties and shifting power structures as the men “try to break each other so the Arabs won’t”. Their rivalry, their sparring, it seems, is essential for their survival.

Set within a single, confined space, the play is, by necessity, all talk and little action, but this enables McGuinness to plumb the depths of characterisation. As their moods move from boredom to brooding, the characters sift through their memories, and sensitive portrayals of love, loneliness, grief and national identity are thrown into relief. However, in the very absurdity of their situation, the men are also forced to draw on imaginative resources. Indeed, much of the play is wildly funny, as the men transform their recent lives into movies or re-enact iconic sporting events. It is a mark of their resilience that they can find laughter, even love, in adversity.

Chisato Yoshimi’s dusty, tilted, terracotta set presents a flat floor space in a dim emptiness upon which the action can unfold. The design echoes the metaphysical rather than the literal landscape, evoking the myriad imaginative possibilities through which the men transcend their situation rather than the claustrophobia of the cell. Rossa Ó Sioradáin’s direction also disrupts the sense of confinement, although the lack of consistency in scene transitions and signifying lighting cues (as designed by Pierce Kavanagh) seems less deliberate than unfortunate.

However, it is ultimately the performances that are most vital to effective execution of the play, and McKenna, Bonner and especially Duncan Hamilton bring a vivid sense of life to McGuinness's play, ensuring that the essential message of the nobility of humanity under duress continues to resonate. Until December 5 SARA KEATING