Working her way up through student drama, playwright Ursula Rani Sarma has moved confidently into full-length production. Now Blue, presented by Djinn Theatre Company as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival at the Half-Moon Theatre, offers another indication of her determined progress and forceful talents.
Three young people have made a seaside headland their regular meeting place from which, in daring leaps which console their sense of worthlessness, they dive into the ocean forty feet below. Their lives are presented as particularly bleak; the details arrive as narrative in a plot which thus avoids too much structure but which is otherwise carried by convincing acting from Dorothy Cotter, Kevin O'Leary and James Donnelly. Clifton Dolliver's set of cliff and sea is both attractive and accommodating, although Mick Hurley's lighting and Cormac O'Connor's techno soundtracks have a little bit too much to do in the staccato division of time and place.
Blue is one of a series of productions which have been organised as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival; covering music, art and literature, the festival's theatrical programme includes production companies Dha Ean and Janus Theatre, with performers such as Paolo Nani and Martha Furey and venues ranging from the HalfMoon to the Granary and Tig Fili.
Blue, Half-Moon Theatre (Cork Opera House), concludes this Saturday. Tonight's show begins at 10 p.m. To book, phone: 021-270022.
Cork Midsummer Festival at the Firkin Crane Centre [email: corkfestivaleircom.net]. Festival booking office: 021-270022.