JUST ONE STAGE TOO FAR
The width and height of the Bord Gáis stage presents difficulties for performers not used to it, something that was clearly shown on opening night. Originally written for TV by the authors of Columbo and Murder She Wrote, it’s cleverly constructed, full of red herrings and theatrical references and tantrums, and with an element of tongue-in-cheek. But it had problems from the lead actor, Alex Ferns, not projecting his voice well in places, and throwing away some important speeches by taking them too fast.
He played Alex Dennison, a playwright who believes his actress fiancée was murdered after a performance. Officially it was suicide. So a year later, to get to the truth, he rounds up all the cast of the fatal night to perform a reading of his new play which turns out to be all about the dead woman and the other actors.
You might call it a contrived situation but it’s well plotted, though finally a bit of a cheat, and it’s handled with a polished skill that kept things moving snappily and asks the audience to suspend its disbelief.
The emergence of the villain breaks a lot of the accepted rules, wakes up the audience with a literal bang – several in fact – and it has a denouement reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap.
Apart from Ferns, who carried much of the show in a very demanding role, it was interesting to see Mark Wynter in fine form as the superior old-pro style actor and Anita Harris as a savvy producer with no illusions about theatrical life. The use of flashback technique was skilfully staged and written, and the dialogue had good comic touches. The show comes from the Classic Thriller Theatre Company.
The Aeneid (Smock Alley September 14-24) is not the kind of play you normally expect at The Fringe festival. The epic by Virgil continues the story from Homer’s Odyssey as Aeneas leads the survivors of Troy through trial and tribulation to the founding of Rome and a new kingdom in Italy. It’s a story of how history is reframed to suit the winners, not unlike the way the different political parties claimed ownership of what happened in 1916.
In Eggsistential (Smock Alley September 12-17), Joanne Ryan goes on a comical one-woman mission to uncover the ifs and wherefores of reproducing her genes. Family, fortune tellers, fertility experts, radio and internet are dragged into her quest to discover if living her own life should involve making another.
Smashing Times Theatre, in collaboration with organisations in Germany, Poland and Spain, are presenting Women, War And Peace in the Samuel Beckett Theatre, TCD, September 14-16. It highlights the war stories of 20 women from four countries, including the Irishwoman Mary Elmes who saved Jewish children from the gas chambers in World War II.
Beginning with the Fringe, Outlandish Theatre aims to turn the small Rita Kelly Theatre at The Coombe Hospital into a cultural hub. They start Megalomaniac, (8pm, September 11-17) a play based on interviews with a Syrian immigrant, Noor, living in Dublin who, after 15 years got Irish citizenship. Noor is played by Iman Aoun, artistic director of the Palestinian Ashtar Theatre.