EVEN the most befuddled brain in the bar couldn't fail to grasp the essentials of these two one act plays; the Boston based Cool Root theatre's pub crawl through Dublin is taking no chances with subtlety or nuances. Pub talk and pub behaviour are under scrutiny here and obviously writer and director Aidan Parkinson felt the need to turn the volume up high to command attention above the din.
With a nod in the direction of Beckett, Waitin on the Ma features two Dublin brothers, Cormac (John Delaney) and Joe (Brendan Langley) having a drink on the occasion of Cormac's graduation from Trinity with a degree in English and philosophy. Both are roaring caricatures: Joe is determinedly proletarian and sexist, while Cormac, is absurdly affected, in voice, accent and manner until he smokes a joint and it all slips.
The two performances are excellent, making the most of the hit and miss humour which would make its points - about social class and insecurity a lot more sharply if it were less exaggerated.
More sibling rivalry and festering resentments surface in Wrestlin, in which two ageing sisters meet for their Saturday afternoon whiskeys. Milly (Lynda Gough) is the long suffering carer who lives with their mother who has Alzheimer's, while Cora (Julie Breen) is more concerned to hang on to her less than prepossessing man. As the pair watch a wrestling match on TV, their mutual animosity emerges - loud and clear. Despite the vibrant performances, the well choreographed sequences and the underlying sense of sadness and desperation, we emerge feeling bludgeoned into submission by this script and, yes, gasping for a drink.
