Dublin Theatre Festival

The Dublin Theatre Festival went into its thirty-first year this season, with a condensed programme of over thirty-five productions spanning a three, rather than a two, week run. There is a considerably larger imput this year from Irish writers and companies, with over fifteen new home-grown works premiering at the Festival. Among them is the haunting Carthaginians by Frank McGuinness, a tale of tales of Derry and Derry people. McGuinness is of recent years, one of the more prolific contributors to the Festival, as this year also sees the first staging of his version of Peer Gynt at the Gate.

International contributions to the Festival have become progressively more frequent since 1981, with over ten major shows from Europe, Australia, South Africa and Japan highlighting this year's season. Included amongst those are Simon Fanshawe and Jenny Lecoat, two of London's most popular and controversial comic performers; Amampondo, the South African dance/music/singing group who perform a shattering explosion of African culture on stage in the Olympia, and the Torokko Puppet Theatre giving a short run in the Mansion House.

Reviewed below are some events of particular interest to GCN readers. A number of plays are running to the end of the month if you haven't seen them.

STONEPICKERS

Pickers of stone. Gatherers of hardness, of remains, of harshness, of solid realities. Five men thrown together on a labouring site, bound by rituals of masculinity, and each seeking a way out the trap in which he finds himself. Each confronting the reality of his enslaved condition and all ultimately discovering a certain sameness in their lot.

These are the bones which Peter Gowen's play strips bare. It shaves through the thin lint which divides helpless violence and abject submission, scraping away the flesh of steadfast ritual and hierarchical control, and finding strangely weak and quivering creatures behind them. Ostensibly the play concerns the interactions of these five workers and their supervisor, exploring their diversities and their similarities and finally drawing them together as a force to defeat the oppressive injustice of their boss. It succeeds quite brilliantly in portraying the modes of control and the levels of communication that exist among the group, where rules of behaviour are ironly imposed and where alliances are forged and broken in rapid alternation.

The play roughly follows the structures of linear developmental theatre, where introductions are made, problems are raised, a crisis is reached and finally a resolution of sorts is achieved. The problem with The Stonepickers lies in the final stages of this method, where the action and development is altogether too rushed and where nothing is achieved with any degree of conviction - one major crisis follows rapidly on the heels of another, where each is successively left unresolved and pushed into the background in the wake of the next crisis. It is the age old problem with this form of theatre - "wrap everything up before the pubs close".

However, as a study of the internal politics of a group of men thrown together for a long period of time, the play excels quite brilliantly. Each character has is own personal trauma, which together add up to a perfectly observed series of comments on issues as diverse as land and property rights to marital jeopardy.

Peter Gown is an exceptionally talented young writer, but one can't help thinking how wonderful the play would have ben if these themes had been transposed to a more experimental level of presentation. The ritual in the play begs closer examination, especially that of pecking order and of acceptance, using the act of tea-making as visible expression of both.

The Actor's Company has been in existence for just over a year now, and has already made an indelible impression on Irish theatre. Future productions from this vibrant company will be eagerly anticipated given the degree and power on display in this strong, though flawed, performance.

Peter Hussey

WILD WOMEN MEET THE HOOCHIE COOCHIE MAN

Devised and performed by Susie Kennedy, Mary Ryan and Ciaran Bourke, with John Dunne as Musical Director and choreography by Pat Conway.

Bad Bob's Backstage Bar, East Essex Street, Dublin 2. 8pm Sept. 27th -Oct. 22nd.

After their raunchy success at last year's theatre festival with Wild Women Don't Have the Blues, Susie Kennedy, Mary Ryan, John Dunne and the band are back and have teamed up with blues singer Ciaran Bourke in Wild Women Meet The Hoochie Coochie Man. The show claimed to be a "hot bed of steamy jazz, blues and boogie woogie" and it certainly lived up to that.

Despite the fact that the stage was very small, it still managed to facilitate the two wild women and the Hoochie Coochie Man himself, John Dunne, and the rest of the band. The actual set was quite basic with three bar stools and a large American flag on the ceiling directly above. The set was lit mostly from behind with colours varying from pink, to orange, to blue and back again to pink - blending quite well with the type of music.

John Dunne opened the show with a catchy little number, and while the audience tapped their feet and 'doo bee doo bee dooed' to the music, onto the staage skipped the cast dressed in vivid and vulgar evening wear. All three commenced singing the blues. Mary Ryan then took centre stage while the other two sat along the sides on the bar stools, and sang "A Good Man is hard to find" - this was followed by Susie's description of what a 'good man' is (which had the audience doubled up in knots) and then the Hoochie Coochie Man donned his electric guitar and introduced himself with lines like "I'm a real man", "everybody knows me" and "the whole damn world knows I'm here".

The second half of the show is badly paced and a little drawn out. Mary doesn't seem very convincing - I found her facial expressions false. She seemed quite ill at ease and not as relaxed as Susie who was superb. The show was meant to be humorous but I got the impression that Mary didn't think it was. If Mary was acting the part, then Susie was the part. She seemed to enjoy every single minute of her performance, I did, however, like Mary's "Apres moi" and her stage movements were very apt at this point - she was tackiness itself.

The choreography was excellent and Ciaran Bourke played the sleazy playboy to perfection. I loved the choice of footwear; pink slingbacks, brown suede shoes and black courts really drew attention to the well rehearsed foot movements.

All in all, a most enjoyable evening, definitely worth a visit, even if you're not into jazz/blues music - it got me tapping my feet and it had me in stitches all the way through.

Samantha Featherbottom

Carthaginians

by Frank McGuinness

Carthaginians is a new play by Frank McGuinness which is directed by Sarah Pia Anderson and is currently being staged at the Peacock, Dublin. It is McGuinness' contribution to the everlasting 'national question' and while his contemporaries may parade and recite the usual rhetoric, McGuinness attempts to transcend the political statement by focusing on the psyche of Derry and its troubles, through its victims.

The play is staged in a burial ground, with its characters engaged in a vigil - waiting for the dead to rise. Derry and the Bloody Sunday killings provide a backdrop and a central reference point to the stories and pain of the characters who are placed in the limbo between life and death.

The play, in McGuinness' now familiar style, exudes metaphors, symbols and incantations - some falling short of the mark, but generally succeeding in perturbing and bemusing the audience. This is his first play where humour rides high above everything else, at times obliterating the sadness and pain of the characters. It is an uneasy marriage, and one which doesn't so much blend the tragi-comic aspects but in effect, segregates them. It is also Rosaleen Linehan's most startling performance to date - she is nothing short of brilliant, pounding humour, pathos and pain together in the creation of Maela, the middle aged woman whose visions inspired the vigil. David Herlihy's Dido (Queen of Carthage, 'queen' of Derry) provides over and for the gathering in flights of pique and exuberance, a visible representation of the unquenchable spirit that is Derry.

The characters gradually realise that the dead must be left to the earth; that the dead in themselves must also be buried in this burial ground. The focus shifts from the dead to the dying (i.e. themselves), when they finally understand that the miracle has actually occurred. The rebirth of their dead hope, their will to carry on, the caretaking of the living.

As a statement about Derry, Carthaginians is powerful in understanding and heavy with implication. As a piece of theatre it seems unpolished until the end, with the actors seeming at times to plod through many words and actions, which appear too obscure for general understanding and not involved enough in ritual or body language to make nay other kind of impression. There is something about the use of language which bother me, as it

bothered me in Innocence. Traces and grasps of notions are not sufficiently powerful in themselves, unless placed firmly in the realm of the visual, where rhyme and ritual can send them flying towards the unconscious. For me, Carthaginians failed more often than not to achieve this, and left me waiting in vain for the full blow of their impact. Only in the final scene did anything come together, where the ritual naming of victims of bloodshed by the cast conjures up power and magic by using the mundane. It served to remind us of what McGuinness was capable of doing in Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme but which he has strangely failed to achieve ever since.

Peter Hussey

LANGUAGE AND SILENCE

Torchlight and Laser Beams is a new play based on the writings of Christopher Nolan. The play is directed by Michael Scott and is currently playing at the Gaiety, Dublin.

It is a play about language and silence. The silence of Joseph Meehan whose brain teems with words, sentences, metaphors and magic but has no way to impart it all. Christopher Nolan (Joseph Meehan) is a unique figure in Irish literature, but the medium he uses, language, is rigorously social and communal. Nolan wants to express a silent language, but logically the notion is absurd as is a lot of this play.

All the action of the play filters through the lead character Joseph Meehan, alias Christopher Nolan. The early years of his life resemble the opening scene in which mad doctors perform an operation on Meehan's mother to allow him to be born. Born without control of his limbs and without a voice. The play maps out the frustrations and problems that Nolan (Meehan) has to overcome if he is to exorcise his poetic demons.

The whole problem with this play is that it is exclusively centred on Meehan's frustrated development. He eventually triumphs with great strength and courage but at that stage who cared? I certainly didn't. The play was without tension, plot or development of character. All the other characters were only a sounding board for Meehan's despair.

The gaping lack in this play was one of humour, even though Meehan tries to use laughter to transcend his physical and social incapacity. This is attempted in one poignant scene when Meehan is at school. Some of the kids get him to smoke his first cigarette by getting him to inhale and then holding his nose. The smoke almost hits his toes and Meehan bursts into wild ecstatic posturing. They laugh together but unfortunately it is the last one of the play.

Nolan/Meehan is too selfcentred, too absorbed with his own 'voice' to worry about its contents or effects. The language of this play is musical and muscular but repetitious. Christopher Nolan is a good writer but his play is long on dialogue and short on drama.

Martin O'Neill

JOAN COLLINS FAN CLUB at Edmund Burke Hall, Trinity College, Dublin

If you sat in the front row, arrived late, decided to take a trip to the toilet or even laughed in an unusual way, you inevitably fell victim to the sharp and wonderfully abusive tongue of Julian Clary who is the Joan Collins Fan Club. The Joan Collins Fan Club is an alternative Drag Act which is camp, witty and entertaining. The eighty minute set gave us some riotous moments though slow paced and at times he laboured on a joke to the point of boredom. Clary especially had it in for James Anderton, supply teachers, Roger Whitaker, policemen, heterosexuals and Judith Chalmers. Whilst his set was often gratuitously smutty and contained standard material, the presentation was refreshing original.

Without Fanny the Wonder Dog in this show, Clary was accompanied by 'the lovely Russell' (the only heterosexual in show business, according to Clary) and together they provided some hilarious musical entertainment. Especially memorable was their brilliant rendition of 'Leader of the Pack' and their own 'You put sugar in my tea again, you bastard!'

The Joan Collins Fan Club makes a welcome change from the typical, outdated drag shows. We didn't leave the theatre with aching faces, but certainly felt well entertained.

Tim Pitt

SIMON FANSHAWE AND JENNY LECOAT

Project Arts Centre, Dublin, October 3rd-8th.

Simon and Jenny both toured Ireland in 1984 with "Three of a Different Kind", performing at the Hirschfeld Centre and University College, Dublin.

They’ve got a good comic line in sexual politics but seeing them a few years ago prepared me for their show at the Project which I felt was a little wanting in parts.

Jenny Lecoat's act was once described as "politically conscientious filth" which, based on her performance at the Project, was quite true.

However, I don't know if it was the late time (billed for 11.30pm although she didn't come on until 11.45pm) or my own perceptions of the act but I found the whole thing dragging somewhat.

There was no denying the humour of Jenny's performance; very sharp and outrageously funny as she put (mainly) men, our lifestyles, attitudes, pecadillos and more often than not, our penises, under her acidic tongue. Metaphorically speaking of course.

Simon Fanshawe came on and regaled the audience with jokes which centred around his gayness. I began to find this a bit of a bore after a short while although it was interesting to observe the reactions of other people in the audience. For example, the British Embassy, who sponsored the show, was impassive during some of silly Simon's speak while a faggot contingent nearly collectively creased itself with laughter.

Religion and America got a good poking but I just wanted my bed at that stage. Simon needs to tighten up his act or he could be left behind by his endearing colleague Jenny.

That said, the venue was ideal for this type of cabaret/political theatre.

Jon Hues