Paddy Lama: The Shed Talks
Smock Alley Theatre
★★★★☆
Jason Byrne is at his most nostalgic in Paddy Lama, a tragicomedy in which the now 51-year-old comic looks back on life by way of his late father, Paddy. Sitting in his father’s shed – the space into which he retreated at any opportunity – Byrne, as Paddy, paints a tale of a bygone Ireland, one where health and safety was optional and phone signals were nonexistent.
Family photos and voice recordings – mainly of the Byrne family recounting Paddy’s funnier moments – pepper the production, which features a myriad of Byrne snr’s belongings, including old Aisling copybooks, wellies, and bottles of Jameson and TK Lemonade, as well as the blue jumper that Byrne jnr is wearing.
Topics include the pub, politically incorrect humour and, poignantly, the way the Byrnes dealt with their patriarch’s demise after a series of strokes.
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In the 75-minute-long piece we see a tender Byrne cater to the past with the care and humour of a family member at a wake. That said, Paddy Lama comes with a triptych of warnings: don’t take life too seriously, enjoy every moment and don’t let the heartbeats pass you by.
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For anyone still living – in their mind, at least – in the era of Frank Sinatra, Italia ’90 and post-Mass gossip, Paddy Lama will scratch a decades-old itch. For other people, the show can teeter into the realms of a granduncle telling stories at Christmas dinner: flashes of brilliance, but altogether a little long.
Continues at Smock Alley Theatre, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, until Wednesday, September 20th
