Waterfront Hall, Belfast
"What has this war done to us?" laments Knacker, a shambling alcoholic eking out a pathetic existence in a derelict house in loyalist Belfast. In this Irish and UK premiere of Marie Jones's latest play for Rathmore, the company she recently formed with husband Ian McElhinney, this godforsaken hole is a metaphor for the world inhabited by those communities in the North which feel failed and marginalised by the peace process, a world in which bombs and bullets have been replaced by drugs, racketeering, extortion and punishment attacks. Jones revisits old territory in changed times, speaking up for the underdog with that trademark blend of baleful observation, black comedy and expletive-strewn narrative, which has become reassuringly familiar to Northern theatregoers.
With an eye and ear attuned to every last nuance of the writing, McElhinney directs a quartet of desperate characters gathered together under the same pigeon-infested roof: kind, middle-aged Bella, stumbling around in a drunken haze; her sidekick Lillian, a depressive transvestite and Tina Turner impersonator; a terrified Boy, on the run from the local hoods; and Knacker.
As the damaged, furiously intelligent Knacker, Adrian Dunbar positively devours the stage, revealing depth and colour that go far beyond the text, his restless, ever-changing body language and unstoppable articulacy injecting proceedings with welcome energy and engagement. Carol Moore gives a touchingly truthful performance as poor, doomed Bella, with whom Knacker has spent many booze-fuelled nights under London's Blackfriars Bridge. Ian Beattie's Lillian starts out all prim and proper before disintegrating, as his predictable betrayal of family and friendship is revealed. Matthew McElhinney is a little too gobby and blustering as the lad who was king of the July 11th bonfire before plummeting to earth and into the grip of the paramilitaries.
Many people, young and not so young, will recognise and even identify with these characters, but somewhere along the way the drama has been overtaken by painstaking storytelling and exposition. The plotline winds its way towards a single moment when the Boy meets his inevitable fate. That should have been the signal to cut and run.
Until May 1
