Terrible tribute to the class act Dave Allen
Ihave rarely been so uncomfortable at a show as I was while watching the three performers struggling and failing to raise laughs from Brian McAvera’s convoluted script aimed, according to the programme, at presenting ‘a brand new comedy that celebrates the work of Dave Allen.’ Almost everything that made Allen a great performer is missing in the play.
Dave Allen was often outrageously irreverent when lampooning the pomposities and pretensions of Church and State, provoking as much rage as laughter. But he did it all with immaculate comic timing and subtlety mixed with sometimes surreal comedy sketches. And above all he was very funny because he always hit the target. His intimate style was tailormade for television – poised on a high chair, cigarette in one hand, drink in the other (was it whiskey or ginger ale?).
The play attempts to take the comedian’s life in reverse order, starting in the afterlife, then swinging chaotically through comedy about Ian Paisley at the gates of Heaven, Allen’s TV work in Australia and Butlins, on to his English work and later taking in his youth in The Irish Times where his father was managing director. And in between, in no apparent logical sequence, dollops of his relaxed stand-up show are played out, painfully unfunny versions of the originals.
There are also bursts of anger against clerical abuse and even the Tuam babies.
The point about Allen was that he didn’t bellow out his attacks. He did it with a kind of bemused incomprehension that was scarifying but controlled and hilarious. Here, it can take three people to tell a single joke, killing any humour dead. As far as I could make out, all three characters represent Allen at various stages in his life, including Tara Breathnach as Davinia – Allen’s female alter ego? I’m not sure, but the character added nothing to the show, apart from slowing things down.
Bryan Murray looked the part, but I felt sorry for a fine actor lumbered with such a set-up. Michael Bates was also on hand as Allen to add confusion.
Touring to Galway, Letterkenny, Waterford, Wexford and Clontarf.
‘Here, it can take three people to tell a single joke, killing any humour’