Today's reviews are of Much Ado About Nothingat the Lyric Theatre in Belfast and Romeo & Juliet/ Detestat the Limerick Unfringed Festival:
Much Ado About Nothing
Lyric Theatre, Belfast
Jane Coyle
It is a romantic comi-tragedy in which the two leading characters are anti-romantics. It is a play about the aftermath of war, where soldiers return home to a world of elderly men and love-starved women.
All these elements and more are skilfully drawn together in Rachel O'Riordan's robust all-male production, performed with gender-swapping pace and gusto, much as would have been done in Shakespearean times.
By using only seven actors for more than 20 roles, O'Riordan has pulled off a feat of dizzying mathematics. The effect is a dramatic Rubik's cube, in which male/female friendships are given new edge and perspective.
The terrific cast strut and swagger around Gary McCann's sturdy wooden balcony, bridges and hidden corners, their interlocking romances burnished by James McFetridge's mellow lighting, which switches to turn events dark and sinister.
The returning warriors - Claudio (a fine debut by Odell, doubling as a cynical Beatrice), Don Pedro (an intense, focused Tony Flynn), the Machiavellian Don John (David Heap) and Michael Condron's rather too jovial Benedick (though touchingly vulnerable as Hero) - go about their business with ritualistic flourish, posing and pausing for effect, before flinging on their greatcoats and striding on purposefully.
Frankie McCafferty effortlessly switches ages and genders in four contrasting roles, Conan Sweeney adds broad humour to Conrade and Ursula, while the elegant Gregory Floy is a forceful Leonato, clearly the leader in times of war and peace. In its stark revelation of the treatment of women and the male interpretation of love, this beautifully spoken production is much ado about plenty.
• Runs until Feb 24
Limerick Unfringed Festival: Romeo & Juliet/ Detest
Belltable, Limerick
Brian O'Connell
"There are no small parts, just small actors" signals the publicity for the opening show of the 10th Limerick Unfringed Festival. Set on an ironing board, Tiny Ninja Theatre's Romeo and Juliethad most of the audience in creases, yet ran out of steam halfway through for this reviewer. Hats off to company originator Dov Weinstein, who happened upon the idea of combining minute ninja figures with classical text.
Weinstein and his band of figurines present a condensed version of the Verona tale, with cardboard boxes of various sizes providing the locations. While Weinstein tries to embellish the text with modern asides and intonation, moving the figures becomes a laboured routine, with the performer relying on his vocal dexterity to provide distinct characterisation.
Both main characters fit into a stereotypical innocent love pairing, with the added focus on parental obligation and duty, compliant no doubt with general Samurai code. The sole soundtrack came inadvertently by way of rattling eyeglasses handed to the audience. All in all, it makes the Reduced Shakespeare Company seem like traditionalists.
There was a refreshing lack of gimmickry for another Unfringed presentation, the Irish premiere of Angus Cerini's Detest, a heartfelt and at times horrific artistic treatment of juvenile detention.
While working in a juvenile boys' prison in Australia, Cerini came face to face with the perpetrator of a grotesque crime on an elderly woman. The encounter led the actor to explore the issues behind crime and violent youth. But what prevents this coming across like a sociology thesis is the commitment of the performance.
Fusing dance, spoken word and song, the actor is both voyeur and spectator, observer and observed, and succeeds through his frank portrayal of emotion.
It's intense stuff, wholly at odds with Cerini's opening interaction with the audience where he allows us into his "nice-guy" persona, presumably in an effort to challenge our perceptions at a later stage.
Throughout, prison is presented as a reality where redemption is only available through violence, and a hypocritical moral code prevails.
Yet there is another layer at work here: at times he takes a step back, as if to witness the carnage he has created, and ask our guidance and permission to continue. He needn't have asked - it's liberating theatre of the first water.
• The Unfringed Festival runs until Feb 10 (061-319866)
