Andrew Hinds's The Starving opens in a cell where one man is held under unusual circumstances. The year is 1689 and the place besieged Derry; and he has been caught trying to break in to reach his lover. Assumed to be a spy, he faces execution.
He is an English cobbler, married to an Irish girl; and the lover he risks all for is a man. Both have families, subordinated to what, in the context of the times, are illicit passions. The first half of the play is spent in solo narration as Arthur recalls how they met and the confusion this new sensation wrought in him. It ends as he learns that Peter has died from fever, and that his own life will soon be over.
The second half introduces Harry, an English captain who also loved Peter, but in vain. He has adopted Arthur's son after the family have been slaughtered by fleeing Catholics, and tells his own story of an unloving and sadistic father. Just as life seems to be about to offer him some compensation, the cup is dashed from his lips in a melodramatic twist.
This is a one-man show, with Graham McTavish playing Arthur and Harry; Peter is strictly off-stage. The two main elements in it are the background of Derry's siege and the convoluted homosexual relationships and, if the play does not fall between these two stools, it straddles them uneasily.
McTavish is excellent, and the writing has a quality that engages the interest to a reasonable level. But the plot and narrative construction lack dramatic force.
Runs until April 22nd; to book phone 01-6795720