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Fringe 2009 Reviews (21)
Little Gem
By Elaine Murphy
Traverse 2
*****
Little Gem lives up to its name and has already won its creative
team multiple awards after appearing at the Dublin Fringe Festival last
year.
With this highly polished debut, Elaine Murphy has announced herself
to be a female challenger to Conor McPherson whose writing can bear
the comparison with the master of his art.
The series of 18 interlinked monologues features three generations
of women from the Neville family, honest working class Dublin folk.
For each, their main problem is men but the issues that they face are
entirely different.
Sarah Greene playing sweet young Amber, 19, is full of life, booze
and her feckless boyfriend Paul. He gets her pregnant and then runs
as far away as the world will allow, to Australia.
Her Mum, Hilda Fay's Lorraine, was deserted by a junkie husband Ray,
now a down-and-out, who keeps returning at inopportune moments. She
also has work problems possibly linked to a fairly early menopause.
In turn, Anita Reeves, who created the role of Maggie in Dancing
at Lughnasa, is hilarious as her mother, Kay. She at least has a
husband but after a stroke in his early sixties, Gem is a gibbering
wreck and the active grandmother has an unfortunate itch that may be
the result of a disease or merely sexual abstinence.
In sum, these three women are desperate, unhappy and have little to
look forward to. From this cheerless start, Elaine Murphy and her immaculate
cast under the direction of Paul Meade create an inordinate amount of
sympathetic but frequently raucous laughter, never more so than when
Kay looks for a sexual solution to her itch from first a hijabbed doctor
and then Ann Summers.
This writer loves her characters so she injects hope into their lives.
Amber's baby, Little Gem, is full of it and effectively becomes the
cement that holds the three women together after the death of his old
namesake, which audibly distressed a fair proportion of the audience.
Amber gets familial support and the possibility of a bright future,
while Lorraine finds hairy, sweaty but rich and loyal Niall. It is only
Kay who is left bereft but, one feels, ready for a new future with whichever
lucky widower snaps her up at the end of a mourning period for a man
whom she shared a reciprocal love that hardly diminished in forty years
of marriage.
Little Gem will undoubtedly travel the English-speaking world
and, as it does so, will proclaim Elaine Murphy one of the most promising
new playwrights around. Her cast and director can be proud too and should
also win their fair share of awards.
Philip Fisher
Gentrification : A Conversation
with My Neighbour Henry
By Enda Walsh
The World is Too Much: Theatre for Breakfast
Traverse 2
***
On one level, Gentrification is a small slice of life blog about
fatherhood. On another, it is an equally small drama about the need
for politically-driven revolution to drive back the forces of bourgeoisie
from Kilburn and its environs.
Enda is talking through his day and the pleasures that he derives from
observing the development of his 4-year-old, Ada. So far, so good.
When his neighbour asks him to rewind and start the tale again, you
sense that all is not well and that turns out to be correct. However,
it would be unfair to give away the main plot twist in a play that only
lasts half an hour.
Suffice it to say that where Enda is mildly eccentric, Henry is decidedly
odd but in a very human way. It is the steps taken by this seeming drop-out
and his friend Mark that fuel the drama, which manages almost simultaneously
to be a quiet meditation and a highly-charged exploration of some important
contemporary issues.
Philip Fisher
First Class
Half-Wit Theatre
Pleasance Courtyard
***
With a wonderful Gallic air, this Lecoq-trained pair take a flight
of fancy from the post-office to a trip to gay Paris. Timid Michael
and unstoppably imaginative Beatrice make an odd pairing but create
a whirl-wind romance of the minds in this physical theatre piece to
charm and entertain. While there is no great substance in the concept,
the two actors' flair, skill and sheer beauty of ingenuity take you
on an enjoyable 50 minute journey to the Eiffel Tower.
Sacha Voit
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