OFFSIDE IN THIS TEDIOUS GAME OF LOVE
Hero by Ken Rogan (Bewleys, is a monologue in which Smithy (Daithí Mac Suibhne), a hard man with a soft heart, a loud voice and an explosive temperament spends an hour dragging us over his wouldbe passionate affair with the enigmatic Marissa. She, as far as we can see, holds him at arm’s length while looking elsewhere for fulfilment. Is she just an educated tease who likes the proximity of his macho male physique? We can’t be sure because we spend most of our time inside Smithy’s head in which he’s either lamenting his unrequited love or swearing at full volume at himself and Marissa. It’s never clear what they talk about, since all he seems capable of saying to any woman is that he’s a serious footballer. And by his own account, he uses a combination of brutal head and fists on the football field – which doesn’t endear him to Marissa either. Admittedly, as well as producing the odd philosophical gem, he makes occasional unconvincing references to Homer’s Odyssey. Smithy’s broken heart is presumably meant to appeal to our better feelings, and it has moments of humour, but listening to a man feeling sorry for himself for an hour is tedious when it doesn’t have a wider context, and he remains so relentlessly self-obsessed. However, Mac Suibhne gives a sustained supercharged performance against an intriguing background of fairy lights. Runs until Dec 1.