BELFAST-BORN dramatist David Ireland has established himself as a fine playwright on both sides of the Irish Sea (and beyond) with such brilliant hit plays as Cyprus Avenue and Ulster American.
Little wonder, therefore, that there was considerable excitement about the premiere of his latest stage drama The Fifth Step (Royal Lyceum, ends today; transferring to the Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow, August 28-31).
Presented at the Edinburgh International Festival by the National Theatre of Scotland, the play plunges us into the relationship between young alcoholic Luka and his sponsor, and Alcoholics Anonymous veteran, James. Luka is embarking upon the important, confessional “fifth step” in the AA’s 12-step recovery programme and, James tells him, absolute candour between the pair is paramount.
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Oversharing is one of Luka’s numerous compulsions, so he has no difficulty in telling James about his life-absorbing addiction to masturbation, for instance. Indeed, the younger man’s bleakly comic sexual frankness is typical of the dark humour that has long characterised Ireland’s writing.
The playwright’s talent for characterisation is also in evidence as Luka and James emerge – in the hands of superb actors Jack Lowden and Sean Gilder – as believably complex, conflicted human beings. The men are, entirely plausibly, simultaneously committed to their sacred relationship, yet also mutually suspicious.
The central issue of Luka’s sobriety interlaces with matters of religion, sexuality and family. As it does so, the relationship shifts into conflicts that are presented with a lack of subtlety that is – while, presumably, deliberate – no less disappointing for that.
Like the “swirly jobby” that sits atop the deservedly disparaged W Hotel in Edinburgh, Ireland’s overblown conclusion is unworthy of the carefully laid foundations on which it stands.
As if taking its cue from the play’s teetering, exaggerated closing scenes, director Finn den Hertog’s production – with its large, triangular stage revolve and somewhat overstated music and sound design – seems simply too big (and, whisper it, too well-financed) for the modest two-hander this drama should be.
L’Addition (Summerhall, ends today) is a more consistent and rewarding play for two actors. Created and performed by the exceptional performance duo Bert and Nasi (aka Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas) and directed by Tim Etchells of the great performance company Forced Entertainment, it is one of the funniest and most perfectly crafted works of comic theatre you are ever likely to see.
The simple premise of the piece is that Bert and Nasi will be performing the roles of a waiter and a customer in a restaurant. However, always anxious to ensure that their audience is up to speed, the pair begin by explaining the concept behind the scene to come (which is, they explain, simple, but “a little bit complicated”).
This explanatory preamble soon morphs – by way of the duo’s clever and engaging stage personas – into a piece of splendidly extended metatheatrical humour. This is then tied to the brilliant repetition and variation of the restaurant scene itself, in which the waiter repeatedly pours wine into the customer’s glass until it is overflowing.
The comic possibilities inherent in this simple relationship between hapless (or, perhaps, belligerent) waiter and indulgent (or, maybe, infuriated) customer seem to be almost endless. Or, at least – as performed by the transfixing Bert and Nasi – one almost wishes they would never end.
The piece is tightly and expertly directed by Etchells, and performed with tremendous pace and gloriously variable characterisation. Imagine, if you will, a Monty Python-meets-Fawlty Towers line in catering chaos, combined with the mordant, existentialist humour of Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco or Edward Albee.
Marvellously intelligent, beautifully structured and very, very funny, L’Addition is (alongside Kafka’s Ape, also at Summerhall) the finest piece of theatre I have seen on the Fringe this year.
Another excellent Fringe play is In Two Minds (Traverse, ends today). Presented by the rightly acclaimed Irish company Fishamble (which specialises in new plays), Joanne Ryan’s drama explores the anguished dynamics of a desperately strained mother-daughter relationship.
A middle-aged daughter (a freelance journalist, played by Karen McCartney) and her elderly mother (Pom Boyd) find themselves living together in the former’s very small, rented apartment for a period of a couple of months. The mother’s house is undergoing construction work, and her loving and indulgent daughter takes her in.
This despite what is (as becomes increasingly clear) a deep-seated and traumatic break in their relationship courtesy of the older woman’s debilitating mental health issues. Boyd’s character – who, in contrast to her underpaid, under-employed daughter, is well set-up and middle class – suffers from massive mood swings, taking her from ecstatic optimism to deep depression in no time.
These moods are tied to terrible shifts in her sleep patterns. These can render her hyperactive and unable to sleep for days on end, or else sleeping through the day in a state of exhausted torpor.
Boyd gives a moving and convincing performance as a woman frustrated by and ashamed of her lack of control over her own behaviour. She is sincere in her moments of copiously expressed love for and pride in her daughter, but equally genuine in her excoriating tirades of disappointment in and denunciation of her beleaguered offspring.
McCartney plays the younger woman with an irresistible combination of humour, patience, affection and soul-straining exasperation. combining nicely observed, truly humanistic writing, deeply emotive performances and what is, clearly, a steady hand on the directorial tiller (on the part of Sarah Jane Scaife), this is yet another Irish success story for the Traverse in August.
Finally for the 2024 Festivals, a belated viewing of Same Team (Traverse, ends today). Having contrived to miss the play’s original run in December 2023, I was glad to catch up with this piece about a Scottish women’s street soccer team taking part in the Homeless World Cup in Milan.
Written by Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse, created with the women of Street Soccer Scotland and directed by Bryony Shanahan, the production is richly deserving of its Best Ensemble nomination in the 2024 Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland. The fabulous cast of Kim Allan, Hana Greer, Louise Ludgate, Hannah Jarrett-Scott and Chloe-Ann Tylor impress greatly as they perform the roles of the team’s diverse characters (all of whom are struggling with their own difficult personal circumstances).
Indeed, the actors also take turns in the role of the team’s male coach (who, it has to be said, isn’t exactly without travails of his own). Assisted by beat-driven dance music and stadium-style electronics, Shanahan’s production is fast-paced, emotionally affecting and often very funny.
The play segues between the women’s experiences on the football pitch and the undeniable truths of their personal back stories. The tale of ex-prisoner Bethany (nickname “The B”), for example, carries a powerful social, emotional and psychological insight.
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Played brilliantly by Hannah Jarrett-Scott, The B’s violent offence was a response to appalling episodes of child abuse against her siblings. Simultaneously big-hearted and (intentionally and unintentionally) hilarious, she is committed to the team’s collective ethos, and furious with herself when the red mist to which she’s prone let’s her and her teammates down.
Superb though Jarrett-Scott’s performance is, it is simply one part of the top-notch playing across the talented ensemble. Same Team is an excellent and important show that is well worth its Fringe revival.
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