Thirteen: Bargaining

Liberty Hall

In a wicked parody of entrenched ideological positions and the pantomime of rhetoric, Anu’s most mocking indictment of democratic debate is, sadly, also its most far-fetched. A site-responsive performance set in Liberty Hall, it casts two unfamiliar actors in the roles of a present-day trade unionist and an IBEC-type arguing over the merits and pitfalls of collective bargaining – a central issue in the Dublin Lockout. The script, though, is drearily predictable: the Ibec type merely comes off as a two-dimensional character, an insincere peddler of self-deprecation and ingratiation while auto-tuning his public-sector vilification to lambast anybody not currently in the room. (No, hardworking university professor, you’re not the problem! He meant another professor, one he has just imagined, who doesn’t work that hard. Off with his pension!)

The trade unionist character is conversely full of facts, laws, moral suasions and concessions, which is all quite stirring, but it makes the underlying narrative seems implausibly slanted. With the foghorn nuances of political theatre so heavily criticised these days, surely a real-life debate would have been more useful, and never have concluded with such a glib, ironic exhortation to the power of the vote? What's that? It was a real-life debate? Oh, dear.