The Asylum Ball - SFX Theatre
Commissioned by Calypso Productions from the author, Gavin Kostick's new play seems all of the time to yearn to be a novel rather than a theatre piece. Several of the most telling events in the narrative must be entrusted to narrators and there are dramatic uncertainties in the disregard of chronology that is important to this revelation of schizophrenia if the audience is to learn the nature of that illness. The first act needs some small reconstruction to make clearer to its audience exactly what is going on. But, those reservations aside, and the first act behind us, Bairbre Ni Chaoimh's colourful and imaginative production, beautifully acted by the principle players, including Ingrid Craigie, Sean Kearns, Dawn Bradfield, Jasmine Russell Douglas Rankine, Dylan Tighe and Robert Shaw-Smith, allows the Kostick script to sing with a truthfulness and beauty that has rarely been lavished on a subject that most people seem not to want to know about. The second half of the second act is positively and heart-wrenchingly moving.
- David Nowlan
Until Saturday at 8 p.m.
A Good One is a Dead One - Andrews Lane Studio
There is trouble in Crobh: there are rumours of a killer/ abuser at large, the police have shut down the town, the vigilantes are mobilising and an innocent victim roams abroad. The story-line for this play is not always transparent, but the narration is managed with such gripping intensity and virtuosity by Fergal McElherron that ours is not to reason why.
The style of the writing (by Ben Street) is close to that of Conor McPherson - an articulate, in places lyrical, monologue that hums with menace and grim humour. As McElherron brings us through the briefing session for the vigilantes (Dad's army with attitude), or the home-sweet-home of the victim (lasagne, a video and cans in the fridge) there is scope for smiles, but the madness and violence crackle below the surface. A cinematic motif (Walter Mitty sees himself as Marlon Brando) makes for dreams that will be shattered all too soon.
McElherron has the agility of voice and body that is reminiscent of that of Mikel Murfi of Barrabas. He is a commanding performer: the Fringe has offered up one of its first substantial gifts.
- Derek West
Until Saturday at 8.15 p.m.
Away with the Fairies - Bewley's Cafe Theatre
In some places, belief in the capacity of fairies to make mischief still breeds superstition and unease; from this uncomfortable relationship with the unknown, Tully's piece takes its impetus. A supporting cast of droning elves and hovering dryads takes us through the bipolar mood swings of a drunken rag doll; often, they leave the stage to alight on random spectators. Like the real thing, these fairies don't bother with social-niceties. They regard the audience as existing for their entertainment, and not the other way around.
Tully has created a visually impressive ensemble of tiny characters, and the sound accompaniment comprises a stimulating and sensitively mixed narrative. Unfortunately, this is more than the action onstage can offer; headstrong and uncommunicative, Tully's fairies are a private joke, and what seems elusive quickly become tedious. Even the closing performance from a miniature Bono can't make amends; his predecessors are simply pests.
- Belinda McKeon
Until Saturday at 6 p.m.
The Truth of the Moon - International Bar
Peering through bottle-end spectacles, her hair scraped back severely, "fabled lecturer" Felicia Umbral (Sonya Kelly) delivers an illustrated talk on the nature of the moon. With strangely inflected diction, as if translating from an ancient text, she poses a series of questions: "how big the moon?" Her devotion to her subject is the legacy of her late father, whose gravelly tones are transmitted by tape; it becomes clear that his lunar fixation derailed his life. Sonya Kelly's comically repressed performance helps to animate Simon Doyle's quirky sketch of obsession, but it requires more than overhead projections and tapes to give it substance.
- Helen Meany
Until Saturday at 6.15 p.m.
Limbo - Crypt, Dublin Castle
Eithne McGuinness's Limbo seems to start in the middle and reach no obvious conclusion. The setting is a Health Board field office which deals with, among others, refugees and asylum seekers needing short-term help. Its characters are three staff and two of their clients.
The treatment is not documentary, but rather an attempted study of the individuals. Slaphappy Edel is committed to her work; her boss Chrissie is a selfish sex-pot; Martin is a lowly factotum, bigoted against foreigners. Ahmet is a romantic Kurd, and Paul an angry Biafran.
Their relationships, as scripted, are overwrought and often gauche. Oddly, however, the individual characters remain credible and entertaining up to the improbably melodramatic ending. The author-director is in debt to the cast, Brid McCarthy, Rita Hamill, Derek Reid, Kieran Hurley and Bisi Adigun, all excellent.
- Gerry Colgan
Until Saturday at 8 p.m.
Reverse Psychology: In Gear - Project
The Event at the Project is made up of two-and-a-half hours with three companies playing in five different spaces. Daghdha Dance Company begins Yoshiko Chuma's Reverse Psychology: In Gear in the foyer, where preoccupations of time and space are introduced, with dancers bearing clocks and metronomes dancing in doorways and up the stairs. They develop this theme in the black box space, with athletic movement in, through and around a white cube in frequent motion to Mark Ribot's wide-ranging music. It is brilliantly performed, notably by Mariam Ribon, Richard O'Brien and Anthony Phillips.
- Carolyn Swift
Run has finished
Happy Hour - Project Bar, The George, The Front Lounge
In the bar and upstairs foyer, Wendy Houston proves a fine stand-up comic, who uses dance movement to emphasise her sharp and political humour as a barmaid on a bender in her own Happy Hour.
- Carolyn Swift
Runs tonight at the Front Lounge at 7 p.m.
Night Thoughts - Project Space Upstairs
Morleigh Steinberg and Jamey Hampton's ISO Dance Company presents five pieces, two on film by their own Cyan Pictures. Hampton opens with a solo improvisation, On My Way In, followed by a delightful filmed pas de deux to the music of Swan Lake between himself and a JCB in Deere John. Steinberg demonstrates her control in her own Haven to bird song and music by Nick Seymour, dancing on a sheet which she later raises to reveal her return to the womb, silhouetted by back lighting. To the music of Ave Maria, Steinberg films Oguri's facial grimaces, which I found unpleasant and pointless, but the final staged duet to the music of Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares was attractive. Called Night Thoughts and beautifully lit by Paul Keogan, Steinberg uses a harness to swoop and soar angelically over and around Hampton.
- Carolyn Swift
Run has finished
Didi's Big Day - Andrews Lane Theatre
This play, Didi's Big Day, is exactly as it sounds: a rather predictable wedding farce full of stereotyped characters, soapy plot-line and in-your-face humour . . . in other words, a great night out.
Didi is the blushing born-again virgin bride, determined that everything go smoothly on her big day. Along with gormless groom, doting half-brother, down-trodden sister-in-law, sharking best-man and flirty bridesmaid: the scene is set for an evening of easy laughter and cheap gags.
But they do it so well.
Paul Walker's script, while it lacks tension, is peppered with great one-liners. The uniformly likeable cast is excellent, the wedding-band musak sound-track is deliciously kitsch and the use of video is simply inspired.
David Byrne's direction is slightly dependent on formulaic comedic blocking (pratfalls and all), but all-in-all Didi's Big Day is a smooth and highly entertaining production. Didi should be proud.
- Rosy Barnes
Until Saturday at 8 p.m.
Datsincredible - Temple Bar Square
You could describe this as an interactive sound installation but it's much better fun than that. Sitting into a 1970s Datsun (car buffs will appreciate this) in the middle of Temple Bar Square, the driver takes control of an electronic musical ensemble, with subtle harmonic shifts introduced by every tap on the accelerator. Try changing gears, pressing the horn or flipping the indicator and the mix changes and deepens, creating intriguing textures and layers. No driving skills are required and it's free, courtesy of Bristlebird sound artists - two TCD music technology post-graduates. To sit for the allotted 10 minutes in this sound bubble is an absurd but surprisingly soothing experience, despite the curious stares of passers-by.
- Helen Meany
Until October 14th, 5-7 p.m. daily.
A Very Strange (Kind of Wedding) Space 28
Director Gerry Morgan has reason to be pleased; he made the right decision in entrusting the bare concept of this piece to the actors of the Theatre of Joy. A large cast handles themes at once interior and universal - the sorrows of the human heart, the obscene possibilities of war - with intelligence and sensitivity, both as a group and as stark, lone voices. For an audience, this is both a thoroughly enjoyable and an infinitely disturbing experience; certain of the individual performances will prove difficult to forget, and the songs of Lucia and Nuala are unspeakably moving. Eanna Hickey's musical compositions, crucial to the narrative as it unwinds, both thrill and disturb; but, as part of an ensemble which derives its brilliance from making the most difficult of performances look utterly effortless, Hickey might do well to temper his own stage presence slightly. Yet excess of talent is hardly a bad complaint; this might just be the find of the Fringe.
- Belinda Mc Keon
Until October 7th, 8 p.m.
Comedy Improv - The Sugar Club
At its best, improvised comedy can be the freshest humour there is; at its worst, it's like being stuck in a pub with several stage school alumni who've been told they're funny once too often. Luckily, the Fringe's offering from Brendan Dempsey, Ian Coppinger, Michelle Read, Joe Rooney and Tara Flynn, is more the former than the latter.
The first half is mainly sketch-based, with suggestions from the audience providing the improv bit. At times, it's almost too polished and one longs for a bit of unscripted giggling, but the audience was with them all the way.
During the second half, based almost solely on audience suggestions, the comedy got a little thinner on the ground and relied too frequently on reliable fallbacks such as "hilarious" culchie and D4 accents or penis-size gags. However, thanks to Coppinger, some sketches were brought back from the comedy wilderness with a well-timed and well-aimed line.
- Louise East
Runs on Tuesdays 9 p.m.
Breathing Water Theatre Space @ Henry Place
This first theatre piece by Raymond Scannell, emanating from University College Cork's Granary Theatre, and directed by its author, is laden with unfulfilled promise. Both the writing and the acting reveal potential skills which need considerable honing. The writing is snappy and bright, but it needs a purposeful focus instead of sacrificing meaning to a rap-style alliteration and rhythm for the sake of brief effect.
It starts out with what looks like a traditional youthful rite of passage, as Sophie (a soulful Aileen Lee) yearns lustfully yet romantically after Jonah (a decent fresh-faced Cathal Murray), while her pal Carrie (a smart-minded Maeve Kearney) is prepared to use lust and guile to search for the lawyer she thinks she might profitably settle down with. Jonah and his pal Comic (a lewd and foul-mouthed Richard Loring) are fundamentally more interested in soccer. And after close on an hour it dwindles to a stop without any significant dramatic resolution of the issues raised.
- David Nowlan
Until Saturday at 8 p.m.
Burn This - Bewley's Cafe Theatre
`I don't know why you don't just marry him and buy things," the smart, gay, copywriter Larry (Mark O'Halloran) drawls to his super-controlled flatmate, Anna (Jennifer O'Dea). Bereft by the death of their third flatmate, Anna nearly accepts the proposal of Burton (Peter Vollebregt) a safe, successful screenwriter. Until Pale (Seamus Moran) bursts into their tiny Manhattan apartment, and Anna's years of hiding and self-censorship are dragged into the light. The American playwright Lanford Wilson has brilliantly captured the nuances of contemporary sexual politics, of women's attraction to gay men. David Parnell's direction for Guna Nua Theatre elicits excellent performances and reveals the depth of pain and confusion beneath the one-liners.
- Helen Meany
Until Saturday at 8.30 p.m.
The Dublin Fringe Festival office is at 2 Temple Bar Square, and is open from Monday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Book by phone on 1850 374643 or online at http:// www.fringefest.com and Hyperlink http:// www.dkm.ie/events
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