YES, WE WILL TAKE THE BAIT...
... but adaptation of Young Skins stories doesn’t always catch our interest
The Clancy Kid & Bait The New Theatre, Dublin 2 Runs until June 3
Colin Barrett’s book of short stories Young Skins has received very favourable reviews and won a number of awards since it was published in 2013. These two adaptations conjure up a small west of Ireland town where the young men seem to have little ambition beyond picking up easy sex, and young women ready for anything. Despite the richness of the narrative language, the stories draw a rather depressing picture of small-town Irish life and there’s an underlying element of physical nastiness to go with the jauntiness. I assumed the two stories would be fully dramatised, but they’re essentially left to just two performers to rustle up the drama through their narration.
Dramatically, the better of the two is Bait, narrated by Killian Coyle. It focuses on two young friends, one of whom performs as a pool hustler in the local pub, losing just enough games to keep the locals interested in risking their money. It’s a dark tale centred on revenge and jealousy, despite the apparent comic behaviour of the two friends in the presence of a couple of fancied local beauties. It also has a nasty villain and an unexpected ending, and Coyle does a fine job in bringing it alive amid the raw sexual language.
However, The Clancy Kid doesn’t transfer as well to the treatment. It sounds very much like what it is: a short story being narrated, although Stephen O’Leary as Jimmy gives a vivid performance attempting to provide it with dramatic life. Jimmy produces a rich comic and poetic vocabulary that doesn’t really fit with the character. His sidekick, played with minimum participation by Coyle, has the nickname Man-child. He’s a strange, gormless individual with a dangerous temper and impressive strength, obsessed with the disappearance of a child. Alas, there’s a symbolism in the ending that doesn’t come across fully in the staging.
The two stories draw a rather depressing picture of small-town Irish life