Plenty to sing about in Lyrics
Enjoyable Lyrics is just a little bit too clever for its own good
Lyrics
Theatre Upstairs, La ni gan’ s, Eden Q uay,Dublin
W
ith its couple of musical contributions, Lyrics has the potential to be an unusual little love story in the style of the show, Once, but it depends too much on pithy, repetitive dialogue for comic and general effect. It’s initially quite attractive, but it’s the sort of writing that needs to be witty or subtly revealing about the characters and it’s neither. A little of its self-consciously smart style goes a long way.
That said, writer/performer Tom Moran, and Danielle Galligan work very well together and have impeccable timing. They could clearly make a lot of the characters if they had the material.
Young singer/songwriter/keyboard player meets young woman at an open mic session. She is heading to the USA to meet her totally unknown father.
Young man is obsessed with suicide songs in the wake of being dumped by the love of his life. Their sharp exchanges, not unlike some Abbott and Costello routines, are obviously aimed at hiding their true feelings, but having got over that stage the dialogue remains in the same convoluted mode.
The thoughts on Dublin’s swans have a comic touch of surrealism, but they have no logical place in the dialogue, and just seem forced.
I couldn’t help thinking the young man’s method of taking revenge on his former girlfriend would be crude enough to convince most women to give him a miss, or at least be slow to shake hands with him. And the ending could have done with some of the initial doubt and equivocation.