Reviews of Major Barbara at the Druid Theatre, Galway, Benny Kelly's Belly at Andrew's Lane Studio in Dublin, Petcu-Colan, Brophy, and the NSO at the National Concert Hall, and Keep Coming Back at The Granary in Cork
Major Barbara
Druid Theatre, Galway
By Patrick Lonergan
it's set in 1905, Shaw's Major Barbara has an urgency few contemporary plays can match, offering us a chilling contrast between an ineffectual Christianity and a triumphant capitalism.
The millionaire arms manufacturer Andrew Undershaft (Bingo O'Malley) is meeting his estranged family for the first time in years, and is particularly charmed by his daughter Barbara (Deirdriu Ring), a Salvation Army major, and her fiancé Adolphus (Scott Ferrara). Appalled by each other's occupation, father and daughter set out to convert one another: he agrees to visit her shelter for the poor, and she will go to his munitions factory.
From this simple idea, Shaw gives us much to consider. Barbara wants to save the souls of London's poor, but can do little. Undershaft, however, delivers prosperity to thousands of workers, arguing that his brand of salvation is superior to Barbara's. We get no easy answers to this contrast, making this a challenging work. But it's also very funny; a Shavian reimagining of The Importance of Being Earnest, it's packed with lines worthy of Oscar Wilde.
This Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre production at the Galway Arts Festival handles most of this material well, but occasionally struggles to balance Shaw's wit with his morality. The play's humorous elements are over-emphasised; movement and diction are sometimes exaggerated, and there's a tendency to deliver punchlines directly to the audience. This performance style is appropriate to large venues, but in this tiny theatre it's somewhat overbearing.
But there's much to enjoy here. Costume design is good, the set is refreshingly theatrical, and Matt O'Brien's direction is an exemplar of successful comic pacing. But the highlight is the l trio of O'Malley, Ring and Ferrara, whose performances make this a satisfying production of a great play.
Until July 26th, then at the Pavilion, Dún Laoghaire, July 29th to August 16th
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Benny Kelly's Belly
Andrew's Lane Studio
By Gerry Colgan
Tony Boylan's play, a one-act farce lasting about an hour, has been written in aid of the Edith Wilkins Calcutta Street Children Foundation, a name that is self-explanatory.
This unusual genesis need not frighten the seasoned playgoer, who will know that good intentions usually have little to do with good theatre. On offer here is unpretentious fun, quite vulgar in its mix of anatomical and lavatorial humour, but infused with a good nature and candour that are altogether inoffensive. It is also laced with invention, and directed by Antoinette Duffy with creative touches that enhance the script.
The very basic story concerns Benny, a slob who eats and drinks to excess, and can't hold down a job. We meet him when his digestive arrangements are in chaos, a situation graphically described. A sub-plot has three inner-assistants who live in the eponymous belly, and have the job of maintaining it . When Benny burps - a euphemism - they suffer.
The rest concerns Benny's relationship with his wife, a long-suffering but still loving soul who holds the family together, and his search for a job, improbably ending in success. Four actors play all the roles in a committed and extrovert style - subtlety would be quite out of place here. Brendan Dunne, Steve Curran, Laureen Leslie and Nicola Healy earn their applause.
That's it; some 60 minutes of fast farce, a decent quota of harmless laughs and the knowledge that it's all in a good cause. What's to lose?
Until July 19th
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Petcu-Colan, Brophy,NSO
NCH, Dublin
By Martin Adams
Idomeneo Overture - Mozart, Violin Concerto No 1 - Prokofiev, A Midsummer Night's Dream (exc) - Mendelssohn
Young men's music dominated this lunchtime orchestral concert. The conductor was a young man too - the NSO's assistant conductor David Brophy, who, in most places, adroitly steered clear of the dangers posed by music brimming with youthful energy.
The danger with Mozart's Idomeneo Overture, written when the composer was just 24, is that it tempts one to strive rather than let deceptive spontaneity do its own deft work. In that respect Brophy judged things well.
Ioana Petcu-Colan's playing of the solo part was always apt, and featured a subtly varied range of styles, from warm lyricism in the outer movements to nervous panache in the scherzo. Technical challenges seemed to hold no terrors for a violinist who came across as a natural, sensitive musician. The one serious limitation of this performance was the orchestral contribution. For all Brophy's control of detail and the NSO's responsiveness, there was insufficient tension, mainly because orchestral rhythm always followed the soloist's forward drive and never took the initiative.
The NSO's playing of the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream was sharp and brightly coloured; but the Wedding March was a disappointment - hard-driven and, unlike everything else in the concert, splashy with detail. However, the Overture could have stood up anywhere. In Brophy's reading it was a rhetorical dialogue between the orchestral sections and its precision and vivid colour highlighted the imagination of a 17-year-old composer whose teenage achievements are surely the greatest in all music, Mozart not excepted.
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Keep Coming Back
The Granary, Cork
By Mary Leland
The very best thing about this play is the 15-minute introductory performance by singer and guitarist Tony Henderson. This has nothing at all to do with the script, built by playwright Rynagh O'Grady on a series of addiction and recovery case histories; equally, that script has nothing to do with theatre. Instead, it is as if the unfortunate audience has strayed into a virtual meeting of Narcotics Anonymous. The cast of three - which includes O'Grady herself - presents three stories of childhood abuse as the reason for their being addicts. The much more dramatically problematical issue of treatment, however, comes under the "with one bound he was free" school of fiction.
Economically produced on a set consisting of four N.A. posters, this is excruciatingly well-intentioned; both O'Grady (who also directs) as Nora and Dara Clear as Colm offer their depressive monolgues with faith in their material and in their encouragement to recovering addicts to, literally, keep coming back. For more monotone misery, for the recitation of more of these well-tried tales? No thanks!
Twitching for Ireland, Feidlim Cannon acts as if he's in a real play and, on the evidence here, he deserves to be.
Until July 19th, then continues Irish tour, plus Edinburgh Fringe and London, until September 6th
