View from the Green Room: Stories for September
September Stories
It may be pub theatre with all its limitations but there’s a seasoned troupe of actors at work here tonight that bring a fascinating mix of characters that comment, interact and invent alternative versions of themselves and the world they live in.
Mark Canty’s ‘Somewhere’ prologues the night’s work as Helena Walsh Kiely – who also directs all five plays – wanders into George’s (Pavlo Bondereko) café and comments ironically on the day’s headlines. Helena’s blank expression masks the sometimes cynical ‘take’ she offers as ironic contradictions abound.
Sarah Fahy’s ‘Dear Diary’ explores the all-too-familiar family crisis brought about when aging parent Francis (Bernadette Cullinane) becomes a challenge to over-stretched daughter Lorraine (Andrea Cowhig), whose patience has worn through.
Lorraine dusts, labels, re-arranges, sorts, cleans, washes up in a fever where domestic routine replaces love and care. Nevertheless, love washes up with the tide of memories when old photographs are examined and a younger self (Aliscia Ryan) recreates the mother-daughter bond that refuses to yield to changing circumstances and care needs.
If the whole plotline was any more sugary, it would have been on a stick. Still…everyone loves a happy ending and when Lorraine cancels the nursing home arrangements, the audience responds with a collective AHHHH! Nobody loves you like your mammy.
Waterford playwright Eamonn Dolan’s sharp new comedy Finn and Tilly is a real audience chuckler as Dolan plays with our notions of theatre - pretentions are all about. Finn (Eavan Sinnott) just loves theatre of the absurd. In fact, the more absurd and incomprehensible the better for this self-appointed dramaturg who could look down upon you from a bungalow. Partner Tilly (Chloe Dalton-O’Neill) is having none of it, however, and her direct comments and questions puncture Finn’s notions. The interplay between the pair is the drama of the text. Theatre usher's indifference (Taryn Nolan Lawlor) to the art house picture adds to the commentary until a local tramp (Tom O’Keefe) shows up as Godot – the lad we’ve all been waiting for. Well…whaddayaknow?
Conor Hanratty’s ‘War Paint’ is a delicious over-the-top theatre queen’s monologue. It explores the highs of Cher Guevara’s younger self’s career (Liam Hoban) with current realities as an out-of-work and down-at-heel drag queen; making up for his next audition, his place in the world and the difficulties from trying to hold on to that space he previously inhabited.
Cher paints an ironic view of audiences and sneers at standing ovations that are all OTT. FOR WHAT??? he exclaims in despair. And then, turns it all on its head, by acknowledging us as his audience and making us part of the drama of his life. Intriguing.
James McClure’s ‘Lone Star’ dates from the late seventies and was once on the programme of am dram everywhere. It features returned Vietnam vet Roy (John Moloney) – clearly disturbed by the events of the conflict – with his brother Ray (Patrick Hennigan) as they recall their shared stories.
Both share a crate of beer in the backyard of Angel’s Bar in roughneck Texas. Roy’s bizarre logic brings great humour to the piece as the rows erupt and subside between the pair of brothers. Cletis, hapless heir to the local hardware store, wanders in and becomes the butt of Roy’s anger and bitter comments.
The drama veers close to Theatre of the Absurd when details emerge around the three things that matter most to Roy – his sexy wife Elizabeth, his precious 1959 pink Thunderbird convertible and his love for his country. Younger brother Ray has bedded his wife ‘more than once’ and Cletis has wrecked his Thunderbird and no one is interested in a war lost by the USA!
The dynamic of the interchanges makes for a fun-fuelled 45 minutes despite the fact that the play seems to end several times before the final curtain.
Director Helena Walsh Kiely keeps a good pace and creates 16 individual and different characters that keep our interest in the close confines of Philly Grimes’s bar.
Well done Turnaround Theatre.
