GABRIEL TELLS US HIS LIFE STORY… IN TWO HALVES
Byrne’s talents shine as he revisits highs and lows
Walking With Ghosts Gaiety
Finishes tonight ★★★★★
Gabriel Byrne’s solo performance of his published memoir, adapted by himself, was very much a show of two halves. The first, with his childhood memories, had elements of what many of us have experienced to some degree ourselves but included some items that gave the performance the necessary emotional impact needed in a stage performance.
The second act was in a different class, bringing out the skills and characteristics that have made Byrne such a fine actor, as he went into the details of his search for a career and the mixed fortunes and failures attached to that search.
The early memories were reminiscent of images from Frank O’Connor and Brendan Behan, along with touches of the sort of family humour and experiences that have always been common on the Irish stage and radio. And Byrne chose a very low-key delivery that didn’t quite suit the big Gaiety auditorium, as though he were deliberately dragging some poetic images from memory. It can work on the page but not always on the stage. The dramatic impact stepped up a notch when he got to a nationalistic Christian Brother, the drowning of a childhood friend, and a chilling description of a sophisticated, sexually abusive priest who dissolved Byrne’s vision of becoming a priest himself.
The second act was a more arresting business, generating episodes that seemed to come more easily from Byrne’s experience of failure and success. The characters and language had the authentic feel of a failed priest and failed plumber finding an outlet for his talent in the world of amateur dramatics, that completely changed his life. Touring gave him a sense of belonging he never felt before, and developed the artistry that brought him to the top of his profession beginning with The Riordans and on to such movie hits as Miller’s Crossing and The Usual Suspects.
Engaging the audience more obviously, he delivered a good mix of humour, doubt, fear, remorse, and anger as he went into the tragic death of his sister and his relationships with friends, colleagues and family, the ghosts of the title.
The brittle glamour of the acting world and the price of being a piece of public property, were spelt out grimly in his account of his hero Richard Burton’s descent into self-destructive alcoholism and his own alcoholism that brought him to the edge before he recovered. His final scenes had a poetic quality suited to moving accounts of his relationship with his parents, relived through images of simple possessions.
A lot of work obviously went into the stage design and the sound effects to bolster the dramatic effects, and a huge production cast was listed in the programme, but there was no mention of a script editor. The show, produced by Landmark Productions and Lovano, directed by Broadway veteran Lonny Price, is a fine overall experience but there was room for some judicious editing in places.
The Bewley’s revival of 48, a play inspired by the deaths of 48 young people in The Stardust fire tragedy in 1981 is a reminder of the carelessness and ineptitude that led to that terrible night. The play is a lead-up to the night itself, portraying four young people going through a lot of angst and misunderstandings as they are poised to be part of the upcoming horror. Runs from tomorrow until February 26, Monday to Saturday, 1pm: plus all new Soirée performance Thursday, February 17, 7pm.
Les Misérables, one of the great spectaculars, runs at The Bord Gáis Theatre from Tuesday until Feb 26.
SoloSIRENS tours a double bill of Enthroned, written and performed by Jenny Macdonald, and Baggage, written and performed by Nicole Rourke. Enthroned is a modern fairytale about an everyday heroine looking for a throne of her own. Baggage follows a woman from small-town Ireland to the dance floors of Buenos Aires. Town
Hall Theatre Westport, Friday, 8pm; Town Hall Galway, February 22, 8pm.