Mosaic

Cube, Project Arts Centre

★★★☆☆

Mosaic, a new play from the French writer-performer Louis Deslis, is a monologue about things that cannot be said. Sometimes they have no direct translation (“maison douce maison” does not mean “home sweet home”, he tells us); sometimes they are just too painful to admit.

The French for one-man show is “seul en scène”, but the literal translation of the term – “alone on stage” – hardly seems right for Mosaic. With bold physicality, a flair for accents and ample Celine Dion interludes, Deslis brings to life a diverse cast of characters, including a dreamy grandmother with a broken leg and the dreamy (in a different sense of the word) ex-boyfriend who broke his heart. Monologuing is a defence mechanism for Deslis, and the audience have been invited to watch him avoid confronting his emotions. In the hands of the director Lee Coffey, who has form in crafting plays from forceful, poetic monologues, scene changes are fluid and character distinctions are sharp.

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Mosaic touches on a wide variety of themes and issues, from homophobia to French politics to the impact of emigration on personal identity. Perhaps there are too many to be fully realised in less than hour. The play is aptly named, but there is a fine line between a mosaic and a collection of tiles. Whether or not it ultimately coheres, this is an enjoyable one-homme odyssey of energetically played scenes that deftly explore the power of words to obscure and reveal.

Continues at Project Arts Centre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Sunday, September 10th