Review A Skull in Connemara: Nottingham Playhouse

Make no bones about it - this production of A Skull in Connemara by Martin McDonagh at Nottingham Playhouse is a bloody cracking play. Directed by Fiona Buffini it allows for plenty of slow burning craic in the first half and really steps up the drunken murderous pace in the second. It is also such a wonderful story with more twists and turns than a shattered pelvis bone that this reviewer feels acutely spoiler shy.

The moody set of a lonely cottage interior sitting among the darkening misty coastal hills of rural Ireland is superbly created by award winning designer Madeleine Girling. The house is finely detailed even to the point of having a fire burning in the grate and smoke rising from the chimney above. Girling also takes us to a bleak graveyard where the hero Mick (Ged McKenna) digs up human bones from the graves to make room for more bodies. This is well realised with soil coming up by the spade full and we hear a chilling cracking sound as the flimsy coffins are broken into.

A Skull in Connemara is a short play at under two hours.The scripting is super economic, genuinely funny and like McDonagh's other plays and film In Bruges it has a poetic stream of pitch black tragic comedy running through it. There is even a 'gobshite's glossary' in the programme explaining some of the Irish slang and swear words! On a serious note the play touches upon the loneliness, regret and remorse of the main character Mick Dowd who often sits alone in his cottage knocking back a potent Irish spirit made from fermented potatoes called Poteen. Getting drunk is Mick's way of dealing with the death of his wife Oona who was killed in a car crash seven years ago. Rumours about the true cause of her death have been a constant source of malign gossip in the local community. Did Mick's drunk driving kill her or was her death deliberate? It is a grave matter for all. What will they find when they dig up her bones? Is there some devilish Skulduggery going on in Connemara?

 

Peopled with just four actors McDonagh's play gives plenty of scope for characterisation and given that most of the time the majority of them are fall down wobbly from the Poteen they all do a brilliant job of keeping the drunken scenes real. As Mick Dowd, actor Ged McKenna pulls out all the stops (and bones) with a solid and very believable performance as the duplicitous widower. The only woman in the play is the strangely named Maryjohnny and her cunning and cadging nature is terrifically drawn out with an understated and grubby clothed presentation by actress Paddy Glynn.

Diversely motivated brothers Thomas and Mairtin (Paul Carroll and Rhys Dunlop) complete the foursome. Thomas is the local Garda who dreams of being a great police detective but fails to see the blindingly obvious criminal scenes in front of him. The dim cop is comically realised by Carroll but even his comedy has a devilishly strong vein of secret cruelty – this in a man that is supposed to represent the law abiding side of their community.

On the opposite side of the law there is naughty boy Mairtin - a cunning eejit constantly correcting his potty mouth in front of Granny Maryjohnny. Dunlop brings great energy to Mairtin's quasi likeable character and is brilliantly funny in every one of his entrances – especially the unexpected one. In fact that is what is so delightful about this rarely performed play – the aspects of the unexpected.

A Skull in Connemara abounds with deceptively simple characters and situations that draw you into their world almost as a smugly amused observer. Then just as you are toasting your toes by the lovely warm cottage fire someone throws a proverbial firework into the flames and everything you expected to happen explodes unexpectedly around you! Head to Nottingham Playhouse to see this beauty of a pitch black Irish comedy while you can. Oh and there's a biteen of swearing, so there is now.

 

Credit for the feel of the show should also be given to lighting designer Ian Scott, sound designer: Adam P MCready and fight director Philip D'Orleans.

 

Runs at Nottingham Playhouse until 6th June 2015

Review originally written for The Public Reviews website May 27th 2015

Derby Theatre: Review of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.

The Rise and Fall of Little Voice on until 22^nd November is another five star production from Derby Theatre. Brilliantly directed by artistic director Sarah Brigham this comic drama from the pen of playwright Jim Cartwright has energy in abundance on the Derby Theatre stage. Sparks literally fly and the voice may be little but the spontaneous applause and laughter throughout is decidedly loud.

The revolving set is a clever design by Dawn Allsopp based on a terraced northern house in the 1980s.It can be seen as a cut through home, a back street and the seedy nightclub where LV reluctantly performs her medley of songs. The whole design revolves on a circular base made to look like a giant LP record. Atmospherics and sound play a big part in this show and Ivan Stott has retained his skill base with Derby Theatre from his days in a previous Derby Theatre show – The Odyssey, Tim Skelly's terrific lighting design works a treat in setting a variety of moods and times of day.

The whole cast make this show come alive –and in the case of Tracy Brabin's mother character- Mari, a woman mostly residing at the bottom of a bottle or two – you might say 'alive and very much kicking'. Her bent double legs akimbo performance is a master class in how to play drunk, loud and common and still be lovable. When she does her Jackson Five dance routine with Sadie (Sue Vincent) the whole audience burst out laughing and continued to shriek with laughter for the whole thing. Brabin can certainly play comedy extremely well, both broad and subtle and is equally at home with pathos.

Sue Vincent's deep voiced Sadie is a gift to an actress and Vincent draws many a laugh out of the simple letters OK delivered with a Cheshire accent. Plus she shows Sadie's tender side through her caring scenes with LV. Vincent delivers her role with exceptional comic timing.

Rebecca Brierley makes her professional début as LV or Little Voice and she does it with a mix of quiet concentration in the lost little girl aspects of her character, semi secure in her tidy bedroom full of Daddy's old LPs and a worn out record player, and then an ultimately astonishing display of sexy confidence as LV finally is forced to sing her medley of impressions at the club. And wow can she sing! If people are coming to the show with expectations of how this scene may be done they certainly won't be disappointed. A fine start to Rebecca Brierley's acting career.

The men in the play are generally pathetic opportunists with the exception of Billy. Billy in this production is played with real love and vulnerability by Tom Meredith. The character of Ray Say wonderfully performed by Kevin McGowan is perfectly done. Louche, a spot on match for the desperate to be loved Mari, expedient and exploiting, sad and somewhat shameless yet oddly sympathetic.

His counterpart is the brilliantly named Mr Lou Boo played to the hilt as a 'never was' or 'never has been' compère of a 'seen better days' nightclub. Actor Ged McKenna wins the crowd over big time with his corny act and unsubtle risqué crotch grabbing dancing – the type that drunken older male relatives do at weddings, usually with a far too young bridesmaid close by. Embarrassing but car crash comical. McKenna also features as the phone man at the start of the play.

If you like your drama to be dramatic – and don't we all? If you like your comedy to surprise and be genuinely funny and if you like to be all round entertained then I very much recommend that you grab a chance now to see this fabulous production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice at Derby Theatre. Now could you please get the Shirley Bassey numbers out of my head!?

"Goldfinger!!"

Photo credit: Robert Day.